Vietnamese and Philippine players at their squads' AFF U22 match on Feb 17 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam came back from a goal down to defeat Philippines 2-1 in their Group A match of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) U22 Youth Championship, said an article on the official website of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC).
According to the article, Vietnam was highly valued following the exploits of their senior and U23 teams over the last 12 months. It said the squad has proved they will be a force to be reckoned with in the 2019 AFF U22 Championship as they showed great determination to fight back after the Philippines had taken the lead against the run of play in the 51st minute. The article considered the Philippines’ goal totally unexpected as Vietnam had several opportunities to open the scoring in the first half.
The article praised Le Minh Binh, who scored the second goal for the team at the 78th minute, after the first one was made by Tran Danh Trung at the 74th minute. It wrote that the player, “having spurned several chances earlier, was their hero as Vietnam then ran down the clock to seal the three points.”
Indonesian newspaper Bolalob, meanwhile, noted that Vietnam faced various difficulties to win the match. After Philippine player Christian Lapas made a surprise score in the 51st minute, Vietnam poured great efforts to strike back with two goals scored by Tran Danh Trung and Le Minh Binh, it said.
An article published on the Philippine newspaper Tiebreaker Times said the Vietnamese squad dominated the 90-minute match and deserved to obtain all three points.
According to the article, it took Vietnam until the 74th minute to finally break the Philippines down, with substitute striker Tran Danh Trung converting Le Xuan Tu’s cross from close range to level the game. Le Minh Binh then capitalised on the Philippines’ poor defence to score the winning goal in the 78th minute.
The AFF U22 Youth Championship kicked off in Cambodia on February 17. Participating teams are divided into two groups and playing in the round-robin format. The two best teams of each group will advance to the semi-finals. All the matches are taking place at the Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium.
Vietnam will continue to face Timor Leste on February 19 and Thailand two days later. –VNA
VNA
