Vietnam comes from behind to defeat Tajikistan 2-1 in the group stage and book a place in the quarter-finals of the AFC U-20 Futsal Championships in Iran.(Photo: vff.org.vn)
Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Vietnam came frombehind to defeat Tajikistan 2-1 in the group stage and book a place in thequarter-finals of the AFC U-20 Futsal Championships in Iran.
Vietnam controlled the tempo of the game from the opening whistle butit was Tajikistan that scored the opening goal.
Following a quick attack down the right side, Idris Yorovbroke the deadlock from a tight angle.
Just two minutes later, Trieu Xuan Linh hit a fierce shot ona first-time volley off a cross long pass from Lam Trung Thuanto level the score.
Vietnam then took the lead in the 16th minute through Ha DucNgoc's strike from near the half-line mark.
After the break, Tajikistan fought hard to find an equaliserbut Vietnam did well to deal with the pressure and earn their place in thenext round.
Tajikistan earlier lost to Japan 1-3.
“A wonderful game for Vietnam," Vietnam’s headcoach Truong Quoc Tuan told the-afc.com. "As I said, morethan half of the team are only 17 or 18 years old, and have never played in aContinental tournament. We came here with the aim to gain experience forour players, so every single game here is a very good lesson."
Tajikistan's head coach Eradzh Nasikhov said: “This wasa good game. Our players did well, but unfortunately we didn’t fully takeadvantages of our opportunities, and that’s why we lost. It was our decision tonot opt for a power play, because we wanted to score without it. There are manyfactors to our loss today, one of which was because we just played against oneof the strongest teams in Asia, Japan. So maybe our players were tired. In agame like futsal, if you don’t utilise your opportunities, and don’t score, youlose.”-VNS/VNA
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