Emmaunel Uchenna’s header in the second half helped Thihariya Youth dominate Police Sports Club in their second round match of the Dialog Champions League.
Police struggle to score
Thihariya Youth defense line did not play as expected. Easy chances by the Police strikers were missed. Since the starting whistle striker A.Ranish of Police made his way to the penalty box but couldn’t finish it with a goal as his targets were out of the frame. Midfielder and playmaker Nipuna Munasinghe put up an outstanding performance. Fortunately Thihariya Youth goalkeeper Najan saved Munasinhge’s shots. Munasinghe was the only person who took few shots out of the box so that opponents could feel the pressure. Centre back of Thihariya Youth M. Farook along with his fellow defenders survived without letting the opponents shots touch the nets.
Uchenna and Ladido played the midfielder role for Thihariya and they had the control of the game. Both wingers had the speed and the stamina to run up and down the field during ball play. Right winger made his way through to the corner flag easily by passing two defenders with amazing skills. He took his own time to cross the ball to the penalty box. Left winger N.Yasar appeared out of nowhere and headed the ball to the nets. No reaction was given by the Police defenders or the goalkeeper as the linesman called it an offside.
No goals were conceded by both teams as the short whistle was called.
Uchenna heads to the nets
Second half started off with a set play by the Thiahriya Youth SC. Right winger Badran Ilahi ran towards the left side of the field to confuse the opponents. Rajsherons lob pass was not powerful enough as the ball was cleared by defender and skipper Thushara Sampath. Pumped up overseas strikers brought in their A game to make change. The rest of the players got along with the change as it made an impact. Police midfielders Munasingha, Nuwantha and Dilanka had no clue how to stop the ball passing the centre line.
Police struggled to score and faded away when Uchenna headed a ball to the nets which was crossed by Yasar. Uchenna ran from the half line to score the goal as none of the strikers were there inside the penalty box.
Police team tried to bounce back to make an equalizer but opponents defense line were smart enough to waste time till the last minute. After quite number of attempts to score within the penalty box Thihariya Youth defenders gained some space and came forward so that offside could be called by the linesman. Since then Police strikers had no way of getting into the penalty box to score. Munasinghe tried his level best to score from the top of the penalty box. None of his kicks were on target. Referee called off the final whistle as Thihariya Youth SC overcame Police SC.
