Report: Feyzan Lakhani. The long wait of Pakistan football fans is over, the national team finally achieved success on the football field after 961 days.
Pakistan defeated the host nation 0-3 in the ongoing four-nation Diamond Jubilee tournament in Maldives. Umar Nawaz, Abdul Samad Arshad and Haroon Hameed scored for Pakistan.
After losing against Bangladesh in the first match of the ongoing tournament at Home, the Pakistan team was under pressure to win the match against Maldives at any cost.
Both teams did not score in the first half and when the referee called for a break, the match remained scoreless, but in the second half, the Pakistani team showed a comeback.
In the 54th minute, Pakistani youngster Umer Nawaz scored a goal and the team went ahead 0-1. This was Umar Nawaz’s second match for Pakistan and he was part of the starting line-up for the first time.
It is worth remembering that Umer Nawaz’s brother Haris Nawaz was martyred in the APS disaster in 2014 and his other brother Ahmed Nawaz was seriously injured in that incident and after that Umer Nawaz moved to Britain with his family in 2015 and started his football journey there.
In the 84th minute of the assist, Abdul Samed scored a goal and the match was 0-2 and after three minutes Harun Hamid scored another goal and the match was 0-3 and the match ended with the same score.
This is Pakistan’s first victory over Maldives in an international football match since 1991, and the Pakistan football team ended their 961-day unbeaten streak.
The national team previously won the last match on October 17, 2023 against Cambodia.
The Pakistan team will play the last match of the tournament against Afghanistan on June 7 and will play the final on June 10 in order to keep the place in the top two.
