Defending champion Maldives has been defeated in the first match the country played in the "Ooredoo SAFF Championship 2021", against Nepal.

Nepal beat Maldives 1 - 0 during the match held at the National Football Stadium on Friday night. This is the first time Maldives lost to Nepal, in SAFF history.

Although neither team was able to score into the first half of the match, the game was heated with Maldives having gotten opportunities to score, several times round. As such, in the sixth minute Hamza Mohamed and Ali Fasir got chances to score, which were blocked by defenders from the winning team.

In the 19th minute, Fasir's attempt to score was blocked by goalkeeper Kiran Kumar Limbu, followed by an attack in the 27th minute.

Celebrated football star Ali Ashfaq had also stricken for a score, which was blocked by Kiran at the 33rd minute.

Although Nepal amped up its game into the beginning of the second half, Maldives players continued to dominate possession of the ball. Nepal's forward, Anjan Bista got an opportunity to score in the 65th minute, to no avail. Ashfaq and Naaiz Hassan received opportunities to score afterwards as well.

Nepal took the lead by scoring its only goal five minutes before the end of the game, with a score by Manish Dangi.

Maldives will face Bangladesh in its next match of the championship, on October 7. Bangladesh won its first match against Sri Lanka on Friday evening, with a 1 - 0 score.