Indonesia Overcome Defiant Timor Leste in AFC U-19 Qualifier
Indonesia's U-19 national football team overcame a feisty Timor Leste in the 2020 AFC U-19 Championship qualifying round in Jakarta on Wednesday, but not before it had its dodgy defense stretched to the limit in the first half.
In the match at the Madya Stadium in the Gelora Bung Karno Sports Complex, Fakhri Husaini's Young Garudas were forced to make a tactical change to improve its defensive structure and encourage its wing-backs to attack.
Indonesia went ahead early through Muhammad Fajar Fatur Rachman's first goal of the night inside two minutes, a header to send a neat pass from number 7 Beckham Putra past Timor Leste's goalkeeper Junildo Manuel Pereira.
But everything went downhill after that. Timor Leste fought back and dominated the first half, though their equalizer did not come until the 51st minute from Mouzinho De Lima's calm conversion from the penalty spot.
Indonesia was given a break when the referee awarded a red card to Timor Leste's defender Nelson Pinto Dos Reis for a foot to the head of Indonesia's false 9, Bagus Kahfi.
Playing against 10 men, the Indonesian captain David Maulana scored the Young Garudas' second goal in the 62nd minute. Fajar scored the next one, his second, in the 77th minute. After that, Indonesia took their foot off the pedal and easily defended the 3-1 scoreline against a tiring Timor Leste.
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