Sri Lanka vs Thailand

High-flying Thailand will be odds-on favourites to dispatch lowly Sri Lanka in their Asia Cup Qualification showdown at the Markaziy Stadion.

Sri Lanka slipped to a morale-crushing 3-0 defeat to Uzbekistan in their solitary match in 2022, maintaining a run of underwhelming form from the previous calendar year. Indeed, since the start of 2021, the ‘Golden Army’ have suffered seven losses in ten matches (W1, D2), includnig six defeats in seven competitive fixtures (D1). Another disappointment must be looming in the forefront of Sri Lanka’s minds, as they’ve lost all four previous H2Hs by an aggregate score of 11-2. More importantly, they failed to get on the scoresheet in three of those four meetings, which has been the case in seven of their last eight internationals held on foreign soil.

As for Thailand, 2022 has been kind to them thus far, as they’ve racked up five victories from seven internationals (D1, L1) this calendar year, including a 3-0 thrashing of Maldives last time out. Much of Thailand’s hopes of overcoming Sri Lanka will depend on the way they enter the game, considering seven of their eight previous triumphs all yielded a clean sheet. After finding the net in eight successive internationals since a goalless draw with neighbours Vietnam in December 2021, the ‘War Elephants’ should feel confident about troubling the scoreboard. But they should not get ahead of themselves, knowing they’ve bagged precisely once in three of their last five outings.