Sri Lanka played against Saudi Arabia in the 2nd match of the FIFA World Cup Asian Zone Preliminary Competition on 31st March at the Sugathadasa Stadium. According to FIFA world rankings, Saudi Arabians are placed in the 30th position, while Sri Lanka occupies the 134th place. Dudley Stainwall lead this team which was coached by Sampath Perera assisted by Lalilth Weerasinghe.

Sri Lanka put up an unexpected show which surprised the visiting team where there was no scoring in the first half. Sri Lanka focussed on defending most of the time instead of attacking, as they were up against the strong Saudi Arabian team with 5 World Cup players. However Saudis could score their only goal in the fifth minute of the second half, when forward Ibahim M Alshahrain produced a leader.

Sri Lanka goal keeper Dhammika Thilakaratne rendered a valuable service to the team by preventing a good number of goals of the opponents.

As some of our national players were in Pakistan to take part in the SAF Games, this could be considered an achievement with only part of our contingent facing this strong Saudi Team. Sri Lanka is scheduled to play the 2nd round against Saudis in their country in addition they will play Indonesia.