Australia-Vietnam: Pre-match briefing

Both the home and away teams made personnel changes after the 0-1 first leg loss at My Dinh Stadium.Vietnam teamhas a small advantage in terms of psychology and strength, although still considered the underdog.

2 important players absent

At the end of the match against Saudi Arabia, the Australian team lost center-back Harry Souttar due to injury. It was thought that the injury in the 0-0 draw with Saudi Arabia on November 11, 2021 would only cause this center-back number 19 to miss the match against China, but recently the Football Federation Australia confirmed that Souttar suffered a serious ligament injury. The 1.98m center-back currently playing for Stoke City will have to sit out the rest of the 2021/22 season.

Conductor Ajdin Hrustic will be absent due to receiving two yellow cards. Photo FBCN

That means Souttar cannot participate in the rematch with the Vietnamese team. Instead, he will be replaced by the number 2 central defender Degenek, who is playing in the Belgian championship, who is 1.86m tall. Degenek played in the match against the host team China (1-1 draw) and his technical ability was rated the lowest among the 4 Australian defenders, below the average score of the whole team.

But the fact that Hrustic is a key midfielder, playing in all 6 matches in the 3rd qualifying round of the 2022 World Cup and having to sit out due to receiving 2 yellow cards will likely make coach Graham Arnold change his tactical formation. In the match at My Dinh Stadium, Australia played with a 4-2-3-1 formation, Hrustic was the owner of the assist for defender Rhyan Grant to head in the only goal against the Vietnamese team on September 7, 2021.

Hrustic is playing in the German championship, this season he has made 13 appearances for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga and Europa League in the 2021/22 season. In total, Hrustic played 521 minutes, which speaks to the class of this number 10 midfielder. The absence of this conductor in the context of Australia having 11 points and needing a win to catch up with Japan with 12 points, Saudi Arabia with 14 points is a concern for home experts.

Meanwhile, of the 3 players infected with Covid-19, Hoang Duc, Van Toan and Tien Linh, only Hoang Duc was able to join the team on January 17 and still had 4 training sessions with his teammates before leaving, and 6 more sessions in Australia, before the match on the afternoon of January 27. Van Toan and Tien Linh certainly did not meet the entry requirements of the host country Australia, which is to have a negative RT-PCR test result within 72 hours (in addition to having received at least 2 doses of a vaccine recognized by this country).

The two names that were just called up: Ngan Van Dai and Phi Son did not have time to get visas so it was just to prepare for the match against China 5 days later. These are also players who have not played for the national team for a long time, the addition is just to get used to the team's training atmosphere rather than being put on the field immediately.

Opportunity for whom?

Most likely Tien Linh will not go to Australia. Photo: FBCB

Thus, the first trip of the year to the land of kangaroos of coach Park Hang-seo and his team also had a loss of force like the home team. However, the influence of Van Toan and Tien Linh on the Vietnamese team is not as great as that of Australia's Hrustic. Meanwhile, captain midfielder Hung Dung has returned after injury, making the midfield of the Vietnamese team more solid. Not to mention that among the 9 players who have just been called up to the national team to replace the "old" faces, it is very possible that coach Park Hang-seo will notice a new face besides Hung Dung.

A match where the home team Australia has not won in 3 consecutive matches (1 loss, 2 draws) and is very thirsty for points. Being the favorite and the home team, Australia is forced to attack, which is the condition for us to be able to deploy our familiar defensive counter-attacking style of play.

Meanwhile, experts and Vietnamese fans believe that just seeing a new breeze in the team's playing style is enough to make Coach Park and his students feel much more comfortable. Who Coach Park will choose and which player will seize this opportunity, that is what the fans are interested in.