As part of preparations for the SAFF Championship which will be hosted in Bangladesh this November, the Maldives National Football Team is set to play a match against China.
The match within the FIFA International Window later this month is scheduled for September 24, and will be played at the Chongqing Longxing Football Stadium in China at 19:35hrs CST (16:35hrs MVT).
Following the match with China, the Maldives team will travel to Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. There, the team will play against Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon.
Maldives' matches in the upcoming international break
- September 24: Maldives vs. China
- September 28: Maldives vs. Kyrgyzstan
- October 1: Maldives vs. Lebanon
These matches present a welcome opportunity for Coach Istvan Urbanyi and the team's players to gauge their performance levels ahead of the SAFF Championship.
FAM has previously announced the matches against Kyrgyzstan and Lebanon.
To date, Maldives has played six matches against China, all of which it lost, many with a large difference. The most competitive was the World Cup 2002 qualifying match played in Male' in 2001, where China won with a score of just 1-0.
Maldives vs. China match details:
- April 22, 2001: China 10 - 1 Maldives
- April 28, 2001: China 1 - 0 Maldives
- September 8, 2015: China 3 - 0 Maldives
- March 24, 2016: China 4 - 0 Maldives
- September 10, 2019: China 5 - 0 Maldives
- June 11, 2021: China 5 - 0 Maldives
