Sidibari
The Maldives National Football Team has departed this morning en route to the Philippines, to compete in Group A’s opening game in the third round of AFC Asian Cup 2027 Qualifications.
The opening fixture, scheduled for 04:00 pm this Tuesday, will be played at New Clark City’s Athletics Stadium. The fixtures of the third round are spread sporadically across the next 12 months.
The Group A game Timor-Leste vs Tajikistan will also kick off at the same time on Tuesday.
In preparation for the match, Maldives National team travelled to Shillong last week and played a friendly game against India on Wednesday – the home side won the game 3-0.
Speculation around Ahmed Rizuwan’s absence from the line-up was later halted by the news that the winger had picked up a minor injury in training. The national team has yet to comment on the fitness of Rizwan; he travelled to Philippines with the team this morning.
Maldives currently sits at 162nd on the FIFA Rankings. Philippines is twelve rankings above, on the 150th.
While four nations in each group of the third round of qualifications are competing for a spot at the AFC Asian Cup 2027, only one team will qualify for the continental tournament, which will start in the final week of January 2027 in Saudi Arabia.
