Vietnam beat hosts Chinese Taipei 3-1 for a berth in the quarter-finals of the AFC Futsal Championship on February 5 (Photo: AFC) Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam came from behind to beathosts Chinese Taipei 3-1 for a berth in the quarter-finals of the AsianFootball Confederation Futsal Championship on February 5.
With two wins and oneloss, the 2016 World Cup participants clinched a top spot in Group A.
It was a remarkablesuccess for the Vietnamese squad who received an order of “must win” ahead ofthe decisive game.
The team suffered anunexpected 1-2 loss to Malaysiain the group opener in the last two seconds.
They, therefore, mustwin the last two matches to make sure they qualify for the next stage.
On February 3, Vietnam beat Bahrain 2-1, completing half oftheir task.
The match saw bothsides playing in high tempo because they had a chance to advance, but theVietnamese side showed a little domination in term of possession.
However, theirdetermination was shattered when Chinese Taipei’s Huang Po Chun opened thescore from a counter-attack just 40 seconds before the interval.
Huang found the netwith a long-range strike from a corner kick. Goalkeeper Ngo Dinh Thuan triedhis best but failed to save his side.
The back-and-forthencounter continued in the second half, but Vietnam did a better job. Theireagerness and persistence paid off with Vu Duc Tung’s twist and turn kick intothe high far corner of goalie Chiang Hsin Wei at the 29th minute.
Earlier his teammates,Pham Duc Hoa and Vu Quoc Hung, also tested Chiang’s skills with theirclose-range finishes.
Hoa later succeededwith his next attempt when he latched on to a back pass and made a straightshot to double the result.
The hosts tried tolevel the score with the power play tactics, but the Vietnamese successfullyblocked all of their attacks. They took a chance seeing Chinese Taipei’s lackof defence to make it 3-1 after forward Nguyen Dac Huy fired into an unguardedgoalmouth at the last minute.
“I want to commendChinese Taipei and coach Adil Amarante, well done! This experience is going tobe good for them as they don’t even have a professional league. They havegreatly improved since 2017 Asian Indoor Games,” said coach Miguel Rodrigo of Vietnam on theafc.com.
“In the first half, weplayed really tense and compact, and never found a way to break their defence.I couldn’t even recognise my team, and during the half-time break, I told themit’s time to play and die for young country and their attitude changed. Littleby little, we found our rhythm and finally scored the first goal.
“After the first goal,we got better. Unfortunately, our captain was injured. We will first rest,physically and mentally. We spent a lot of resources tonight. Now is the timeto keep the right mentality and play the right way.”
Vietnamwill face Group B runners-up Uzbekistanon February 8 in the last-eight round.
“Uzbekistan isone of the best, the favourites for sure but we are warriors, and we will playwith the Vietnamese spirit,” Rodrigo said.
On the other side,Chinese Taipei coach Jose Adil Amarante said “I can’t say I’m satisfied withthe result, but I’m really proud of my team. With the little time we had toprepare for this tournament, I couldn’t be more proud and happy to see theirperformance.”
In another match ofthe group, an extraordinary last-gasp goal from captaion Mohamed Al Sandihelped Bahrain secure ahistoric AFC Futsal Championship quarter-final place after they defeated Malaysia 3-1 totake the runners-up place on goal differences.-VNA
VNA
