Maldives under 19 national football team head coach, Ihsan Abdul Ghani (Saanthi) has expressed his emotions after losing to Bhutan. Speaking to media, after the 0-1 narrow defeat in SAFF U-18 Championship 2017, to the host Bhutan, Coach Ihsan commented on his side’s performances as a “happy” one.

“We suffered from the climate as our players are not use to this environment. It is the very first time for most of the players to play in these circumstances.” Coach Ihsan explained about his players new playing experiences.

Coach Ihsan also spoke about his side preparation before the tournament, stating that Maldives do not have proper facilities to prepare well for these tournaments.

Bhutan is hosting this year’s SAFF Championship. It is the second version of the championship. Coach Ihsan highlighted that Bhutan stepped into second half with a different approach to take the result from the match and it worked well for them as they managed to win the match by one goal to nil.

Even though Maldives under 19 juniors could not get three points from the match, Coach Ihsan said that he is happy with the effort by the team.

“ Yes the result was not to our expectations. But I am happy with the effort from the players. In their very first time in these international exposure they have shown a very promising performance. I am very confident that these players can grow to be very fine players in the future.” Ihsan Said.

Photos by saff.bhutanfootball.org