Bhubaneswar: India’s Odisha FC revived their AFC Cup 2023-24 campaign with a 6-1 win over Maziya Sports & Recreation of Maldives on Tuesday.
After defeats to Mohun Bagan Super Giant and Bashundhara Kings, Odisha finally got points on the board in Group D, thus keeping their hopes of progression to the knockout stage alive.
It was a flurry of action from the opening whistle with Odisha needing only three minutes to take the lead, Lalthathanga Khawlhring scoring on the half-turn, after Mourtada Fall had won a header from a corner kick.
Maziya, however, caught their hosts by surprise in the 13th minute from a corner kick of their own, Branimir Jocic meeting Hamza Mohamed’s delivery with a looping header that caught Odisha custodian Amrinder Singh offguard.
The equaliser only lasted two minutes as Odisha retook the lead with Carlos Delgado producing an incredible headed goal, stretching every sinew in his neck to guide the ball past Hussain Shareef from a Ahmed Jahouh free-kick.
The Kalinga Warriors went on to increase their lead in the 19th minute when Delgado turned provider, setting up Fall for another headed goal to give Odisha a comfortable lead.
After a breathless end-to-end start to the game, the match endured a calmer period and it was only after the half-time break that the intensity picked up once again.
Maziya went close to reducing the gap in the 48th minute when the dangerous Hamza created space by cutting in from the left but his goal bound shot was pushed out by Amrinder.
Instead, it was the home side who would score again 10 minutes later, with Maziya’s failure to deal with yet another corner set-piece allowing Amey Ranawade to score with a glorious long range curler into the bottom corner.
Isak Vanlalruatfela made it 5-1 in the 62nd minute, finishing from close range after Diego Mauricio had beaten the offside trap to square the ball to his teammate with Sahil Panwar scoring the sixth in added time to cap the resounding win.
The two teams will meet again on November 7.
AFC Media
Click here to watch the highlights of the match on YouTube
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