Sri Lanka lost to Yemen 3-0 in the first leg of the preliminary round of the FIFA World Cup and AFC Asian Cup encounter played at the Damac Club Stadium on Saturday (7).
The second leg is to be played in Colombo on Tuesday (17).
The world ranking of Yemen is 147 which is very high compared to Sri Lanka and thus the number of goals scored by them is not all that impressive.
Yemen’s first goal was scored by Ahmed Maher who did well to go past three defenders to send the ball to the back of the net in the 33rd minute.
Sri Lanka started the second half by occupying the Yemeni territory and threatening the opponents. They missed an opportunity to score when Shenal Sandesh’s kick from the corner had curved out in mid air and spoilt a good chance of scoring.
Yemen scored their second goal in the 67th minute when Nasser Al Gahwashi found the top corner giving goal keeper Perera no chance to save it.
Al Matari scored Yemen’s third goal from a free-kick that curled past Perera into the top corner.
