AKIPRESS.COM - Maldives captain Ali Ashfaq scored twice in the second half as the AFC Challenge Cup hosts reignited their semi-final hopes with a 2-0 win over Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday at the National Stadium.

Ashfaq opened the scoring two minutes before the hour mark for the Maldives, who lost 3-2 to Myanmar in Monday’s Group A opener, after Kyrgyzstan’s Davron Askarov had been sent-off.

And Ashfaq ensured a crunch meeting with semi-final bound Palestine on Friday with his second 11 minutes later for the 2008 SAFF Championship winners.

The Maldives, though, find themselves in third place in Group A due to their inferior head-to-head record against Myanmar, who earlier lost 1-0 to Palestine.

Having scored a stoppage time consolation against Myanmar on Monday, Ashfaq tormented Kyrgyzstan from the start and the striker came close to opening the scoring after eight minutes but Kyrgyzstan goalkeeper Pavel Matiash was quickly off his line to collect at the feet of the striker following Rilwan Waheed’s through ball.

Kyrgyzstan, though, also had their chances as midfielder Akhlidin Israilov sent a searching long range effort just past the post in the 18th minute before captain Vadim Kharchenko shot straight at Maldives goalkeeper Mohamed Imran from outside the penalty area soon after.

To the dismay of the local fans, Hussain Niyaz was then found in space in the middle of the area following a beautiful cross from Ashfaq, but the Maldives midfielder carelessly headed the ball over the crossbar in the 26th minute.

And two minutes later Ashfaq dribbled along the front of the Kyrgyzstan area going past two defenders only to be denied by goalkeeper Matiash.

It was more of the same in the second half as Ashfaq fired in a long range shot from far outside the area that glided menacingly into the goalkeeper’s arms 10 minutes after the restart.

But the Maldives were finally rewarded two minutes before the hour mark as Askarov was sent-off for bringing down Ashfaq inside the area and the striker picked himself up to convert at the second attempt after his initial shot came back off the post.

And 11 minutes later Ashfaq latched onto a loose ball from a Kyrgyzstan defender intended for his goalkeeper on the edge of the area and the striker took full advantage by firing into the corner to seal the win for the Maldives and end Kyrgyzstan’s hopes of a place in the semi-finals.

“I don’t think it was an equal game,” said Kyrgyzstan coach Sergey Dvoryankov after seeing his side eliminated following a second consecutive defeat having lost Monday’s opener 1-0 to Palestine.

“We were dominating and before the goal we were the best team. Even after the sending off, we were the best team.

“We just could not score. It was the same situation with Palestine.”