June 10, 2025
Today saw the continuation of the Third Qualification Round for the 2027 Asian Cup. The qualification process is fairly complicated, in that a total of 24 sides, including the host Saudi Arabia, will qualify for the finals.
The top two sides from the round two groups of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers have qualified. As Saudi Arabia also qualified from this stage in that number, six further places were available. The six worst ranked sides eliminated in Round 1 of the World Cup qualifiers played two legs to determine the three sides to join the other sides eliminated in Rounds 1 and 2 to form a sort of repechage round. Six groups of 4 were drawn, with the six group winners taking the final six slots.
Sri Lanka National Team
Sri Lanka are currently 200th in the FIFA rankings, having started their World Cup Qualification campaign in 204th place.
They began in the World Cup First Qualification Round with a tie against Yemen. The away first leg was played in Saudi Arabia, and Sri Lanka slumped to a 0-3 defeat. Although the return was a 1-1 draw, Sri Lanka were eliminated from the World Cup.
As one of the lowest six ranked losing teams, Sri Lanka faced a play-off against Cambodia to qualify for the third round of Asian Cup Qualifying. With a ranking of 179, Cambodia were favourites to move to the next round, but they were held to 0-0 draw in Sri Lanka, and a 120th minute extra time equaliser gave Sri Lanka a 2-2 draw in the return. Sri Lanka won the shoot-out 4-2 to take their place in the Third Round.
In their first Third Round match, Sri Lanka gave a battling performance, but succumbed to a 0-1 defeat in Thailand, who are currently ranked 99th in the FIFA rankings, although a number of quality saves from keeper Sujan Perera kept the score down.
Home matches are currently being hosted at the 10,000 capacity Colombo Racetrack. After horseracing was banned in Sri Lanka in 1956, the facility fell into disrepair, until it was recommissioned as the National Stadium for Rugby ( the second most popular sport in Sri Lanka after Cricket ), and since then major football games are also now being played there. Horse racing has subsequently been re-introduced, but the only remaining track is in the mountains at Nuwara Eliya.
The team is now being marketed as the Lions rather than the traditional nickname of The Golden Army, although the Sri Lankan lion is now extinct….
Sri Lanka National Squad
Like many Asian countries, Sri Lanka have decided to tap into their diaspora in order to strengthen their squad, improve results, and their ranking. As such, none of the starting line-up against Thailand played their club football in Sri Lanka, although two of the substitutes did.
Captain and keeper Sujan Perera ( 56 caps ) now plays his for a side in the Maldives. The back four against Thailand consisted of Anujan Rajendram ( 8 caps ), who plays in the 3rd level of football in Norway, Jason Thayaparan ( 7 caps ), who plays in Germany for Eintracht Trier, Dynamo Dresden centre-back Claudio Kammerknecht ( 6 caps ), and Brisbane Roar left-back Jack Hingert ( 8 caps )
Midfielder Garrett Kelly ( 2 caps ) is a non-league journeyman and now playing for National League South side Welling United, ex-Sheffield Wednesday and Dundalk midfielder San Durrant ( 8 caps ) was now with Welsh side Connah’s Quay Nomads, whilst Leon Perera ( 12 caps ) and Adhavan Rajamohan ( 13 caps ) were playing in the lower leagues in Germany and Sweden respectively.
Forwards Oliver Kelaare ( 12 caps ) and Wake Dekker ( 8 caps ) played for regional sides in Australia. Winger Dillon De Silva ( 17 caps ) missed the Thailand game but had impressed when appearing in these diaries for Wealdstone against Oxford City. He is now playing for Sutton United in the National League.
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Fatbear in Sri Lanka
Fatbear has not seen any football in Sri Lanka but has twice been to the country, both times on Cricket tours. With these tours being arranged by former Sri Lanka fast bowler Tony Opatha and with Lantra Fernando, another ex-Sri Lanka international in our party, we were treated like royalty everywhere we went. We got to play at four test grounds, the Sinhalese Sports Club ( SSC ) and Khettarama in Colombo, as well as the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy and Moratuwa. Games were also played at Kurenegala and Dimbulla, which have hosted games against National touring sides.
We also got to see a bit of Sri Lanka A vs England A at Moratuwa, notable for Ben Hollioake smashing 10 sixes in making 163, and chatting to coaches Graham Gooch and Mike Gatting whilst walking around the boundary.
Taiwan Update
These diaries covered several games from Taiwan following its re-emergence from Covid in 2020. The last game to be covered was the opening game of the 2026 World Cup Qualification process back in October 2023, when Taiwan eased to a 4-0 victory over East Timor. Taiwan followed up with a 3-0 victory in the return leg to progress to the next round.
The second round was not so great as they lost all six group matches, losing to Oman ( 0-3 & 0-3 ), Kyrgyzstan ( 0-2 & 1-5 ) and Malaysia ( 0-1 & 1-3 ).
Their first phase three game ended in a 1-2 home defeat to Turkmenistan, after which they were 166th in the FIFA rankings.
Taiwan Squad
Only three of the side that started in the game against East Timor were selected for today’s game, striker Yao-hsing Yu ( 16 caps ), who now plays in the second level in China, Taipower midfielder Chao-an Chen ( 43 caps ), and Chun-ching Wu ( 72 caps ), who also featured in these diaries for Taiwan Steel in 2020. The one significant omission was striker Ange Samuel Kouame ( 15 caps ) who had three assists in the 4-0 victory over East Timor.
Captain Po-liang Chen ( 94 caps ) also played for a second-tier side in China, whilst Haiti born Hang Yuen attacker Benchy Estama ( 4 caps ) had recently become a nauturalised Taiwanese citizen.
Midfielder Tae-won Kang ( 5 caps ) was currently a free agent, having previously been with South Korean side Suwon Bluewings, whilst full-back Christopher Tiao ( 6 caps ) was playing for New York City FC’s 2nd XI.
Taipower contributed four players in total to the starting XI. In addition to Chao-an Chen, were keeper Chiu-lin Huang ( 6 caps ), full-back Ming-Hsiu Chao ( 7 caps ) and centre-back Tzu-ming Huang ( 10 caps ). Centre-back Ming-you Hsieh ( 4 caps ) played for AC Taipei
Emilio Estevez ( 17 caps ) was unfortunately not the actor and the brother Michael Sheen !
Matchday information
The journey from Taiwan to Sri Lanka is just over 4,800 km ( 3,000 miles ). There are no direct flights, and the journey would typically necessitate transfers in Bangkok or Hong Kong.
The weather at the 15.45 local time kick-off ( 11.15 UK ) was 28 degrees but thunderstorms were forecast for later.
Tickets for the game were 2,000 Rupees ( £5 ) for the Lower Grandstand and 500 Rupees ( £1.25 ) for the Upper Grandstand.
The match was shown live on the Football Sri Lanka TV channel. Bet365.com, who were not streaming the match live made Sri Lanka 29/20 favourites, with Taiwan at 31/20 and the draw at 23/10.
Sri Lanka made two changes from their first round match against Thailand with De Silva and Waseem Razeek ( 22 caps ) coming in for Dekker and Kelaart. Razeek played his football in Hong Kong for Eastern District.
Taiwan made three changes to the side that lost to Turkmenistan, with MH Chao, MY Hsieh, CC Wu coming in for Canadian based Martin Baudelet, Yen Shu Wu and Samuel.
Sri Lanka were playing in an all-white kit with some yellow and blue dots, whilst Taiwan were in all blue.
The referee, Daniel Elder, was from Australia.
Match Report
Taiwan kicked off but quickly gave away possession, and Sri Lanka confidently passed the ball around with good technique. Taiwan were chasing shadows until conceding a throw-in.
In the 4th minute. Rajamohan sent a freekick into the mixer after Durrant had been fouled, but after a bit of a scramble, Taiwan were eventually able to clear.
Five minutes later, a crunching tackle by Kelly, who was to be a physical presence all game, enabled Razeek to feed Durrant, who ran into the Taiwan area, but a good tackle by PL Chen conceded a throw in.
In the 11th minute Hingert cut in from left, but his right footed shot on the stretch from just inside angle of area went straight at keeper Huang, who made comfortable save.
Hingert tried again two minutes later, but again the effort lacked power and it was another easy save for Huang.
Taiwan then enjoyed a short spell of possession, which resulted in PL Chen shooting from 20 yards but keeper Perera acrobatically tipped the effort over the bar for a corner. The corner cleared as far as Estama, who was fouled just outside area by Durrant. Kang’s free-kick hit the defensive wall and flew off for another corner. Again, the delivery was cleared, but when Taiwan regained possession, Tiao sent a dangerous in-swinging ball from the right wing beyond far post, but just ahead of Yu and Estama, and the ball went off for a goal-kick.
With 20 minutes on the clock, De Silva was brought down by Hsieh close to the right byline. Rajamohan took the free-kick, which was met on 6 yard line by Kammerknecht, but his flick across the goal went narrowly wide.
De Silva was looking a handful on the right wing and he won a corner off Tiao. Shortly after, he forced another corner off Huang, which was met by Kelly, whose header was heading goalwards until it hit a defender. Sri Lanka were able to rework to De Silva, now operating on the left wing, but unfortunately for his side he could only emulate Hingert by cutting back onto his right foot, only to send a weak effort straight at the keeper.
After 29 minutes played, Estama was tackled close to halfway line, but tenaciously got back to win possession back for Taiwan.
Two minutes later, Kammerknecht sent a dangerous looking cross from the left towards the far post, but a flying punch from the keeper prevented Sri Lanka full-back Rajendram having a header into an empty net.
In the 35th minute, a loose pass from Estama gave possession away to Durrant deep inside the Taiwan half, who took a step to his right to elude Huang and shot from just inside the area. Keeper Huang made an excellent diving save, pushing the ball around the post for a corner to stop it sneaking inside the far post.
However, four minutes later Huang slightly blotted his copybook with an odd piece of keeping. An aimless through ball could have been allowed to go off for a goal kick but the keeper decided to try and gather, but could only push off for an unnecessary corner. His blushes were spared as Wu headed away the corner.
As the half-time approached, Estama pushed over Durrant to give Sri Lanka a free-kick 30 yards from goal. Kammerknecht took the kick, sending the ball over the wall, but Huang pushed the ball away. The corner was cleared as far as De Silva just outside the area, and his first-time shot was pushed away again by the keeper. De Silva got to the loose ball but his effort blocked.
In the second minute of added time a nice move between De Silva and Razeek led to Da Silva’s low cross flashing across the 6 yard box, but ahead of Razeek sliding in and unable to apply a finishing touch.
At half-time the scores were level after a pretty even first half, but Sri Lanka had impressed with the quality of some of their football.
Taiwan made one change at the break, with Estevez replacing Kang, but it was the home side who started the second period the strongest. TM Huang was tackled close to the Taiwan area by Razeek giving Durrant a chance to shoot, but again the shot was a comfortable low save for keeper Huang.
At the other end, Estevez nearly had an immediate impact but his low ball across the goalmouth was marginally ahead of Yu and went off for a goal kick.
De Silva then skipped past MH Chao, got to the left-hand byline, and sent a low ball into the area. Rajamohan showed a lovely touch and turn to get away from PL Chen and Huang, and then produced a superb finish into far corner to give Sri Lanka the lead. 1-0 after 48 minutes.
It got worse for the visitors five minutes later. Taiwan tried to build from the back but Wu got isolated and was surrounded by four Sri Lankan players on the press. Between them Perera and Razeek were able to divert the ball to De Silva, who turned and drove home from 12 yards. 2-0 with 53 minutes played.
Taiwan looked to hit back, and Hingert was shown the only yellow card of the game for chopping down Estama as he headed down the right touchline. The free-kick was punched away by keeper Perera.
Estevez then went on a mazy run down the left to get to the byline, but a good header from Kammerknecht denied Wu from having a free header at far post.
Sri Lanka counterattacked and after TM Huang could only partially clear a right wing cross from Rajendram, Razzak finished emphatically left-footed from 10 yards. It was now 3-0 after 58 minutes
Sri Lanka had scored three times in ten minutes to take control of the game. Taiwan needed a quick response, and pulled one back 10 minutes later. Yu was fouled by Thayaparan and when Estevez delivered the free-kick from wide out on the left midway into the Sri Lanka half, substitute Wei-chieh Huang ghosted in at the far post and slid into 6-yard area to prod home past Perera. It was now 3-1 after 68 minutes.
Play became scrappy as Taiwan looked to get back into the game, dominating possession as Sri Lanka faded but struggled to make a breakthrough. Estevez was again able to get to the left-hand byline, and his cross was headed on by Wu, but Estama was closed down by Hingert before he could get a shot away.
A minute before time Estevez popped up on the right wing and his cross was met by WC Huang, and his header was going in until it hit Kammerknecht’s head and deflected off for a corner. Keeper Perera punched the corner away, and when Taiwan regained possession, PL Chen’s cross to the far post was headed into the side netting from a tight angle by WC Huang.
Six added minutes were displayed and in the second extra minute, a poor touch from Kammerknecht to a long ball out of the Taiwan defence fell for WC Huang, whose fierce first time 20-yard drive was pushed into side netting by Perera for a corner. It was probably going wide though.
The corner was partially cleared to Tiao just outside the area, whose left footed shot was turned over the bar by Tsai from 8 yards.
Sri Lanka saw out the final few minutes with no more alarms to claim a famous victory. On the evidence of this display they should be swiftly moving up the FIFA rankings. De Silva was probably the man of the match, although there were several noteworthy performances from the home players. Fitness though might be an issue though, as Taiwan finished the game much the stronger team, as a couple of Sri Lankan players suffered from cramp.
For Taiwan, the players who caught the eye were substitutes Estevez and WC Huang, who have perhaps staked claims for starting the next match.
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odkI6QF5eo0
Sri Lanka : S. Perera – Rajendram, Thayaparan, Kammerknecht, Hingert ( Sacayaradjy ) – De Silva ( Kelaart ), Kelly, Rajamohan, l. Perera, Durrant – Razeek ( Dekker )
Taiwan : CL Huang – Chao, Hsieh ( Tsai ), TM Huang, Tiao – Wu ( Kao ), PL Chen, Kang ( Estevez ), CA Chen ( WC Huang ), Estama ( CH Yu ) – YH Yu
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