Holding Japan to a draw, U19 Vietnam entered the 2020 AFC U20 Championship Finals

With their class, it is not too difficult to predict how U19 Japan will enter the match. Controlling the game and creating dangerous opportunities right from the first minutes, but U19 Vietnam with a cautious approach to the match still maintained the balance.

U19 Vietnam had a resilient match against a highly rated opponent. Photo: VTC

In the 9th minute, U19 Japan had the first dangerous chance when Sakuragawa's shot hit a defender of U19 Vietnam and went out. Immediately after 3 minutes, the home team had an immediate answer with a cross but no player was able to finish in the penalty area.

The first half saw a tit-for-tat exchange between the two teams, however, at the decisive moments, the strikers on both sides were quite unlucky in front of the opponent's goal. The first half saw a not-too-disadvantaged performance from U19 Vietnam against a highly rated opponent and the draw made the coaching staff of both teams temporarily satisfied.

In the second half, U19 Japan continued to control the ball and look for the opponent's loopholes. However, the U19 Vietnam players followed the tactics of the "White Wizard" and did not give the away team's strikers too many opportunities to approach Y Eli Nie's goal.

Despite not having much control of the ball, U19 Vietnam still knew how to make the opponent wary with quite dangerous counter-attacks. Typically, there were two situations where Huu Nam unexpectedly entered the penalty area in the 62nd and 68th minutes. Unfortunately, the striker's final moves could not help the home team gain an advantage.

In the 74th minute, striker Sakuragawa of Japan U19 received a direct red card after a cold-blooded tackle on defender Tien Long of Vietnam U19. From that point on, the two teams played cautiously with not much recklessness in attack, making the final minutes of the match not very exciting.

Final standings of Group J of the U19 Asian qualifiers. Photo: VTC

The match ended in a goalless draw, U19 Vietnam could not take the top spot despite having the same 7 points but behind U19 Japan in terms of goal difference. However, with 7 points after 3 matches and a goal difference of +6, Coach Troussier and his team are still sure to participate in the 2020 AFC U19 Championship finals as one of the 5 best second-placed teams without having to wait for the other groups to finish.

Result:U19 Vietnam 0 - 0 U19 Japan

Line-up:

U19 Vietnam:Y Eli Nie, Quang Thinh, Khac Luong, Tien Long, Duy Triet, Tuan Tai, Cong Den, Thanh Khoi, Tan Thanh, Van Tung, Nguyen Van Tung.

Japan U19:Leobrian, Nishio, Nakamura, Matsumoto, Shibata, Ayukawa, Someno, Sakuragawa, Kato, Hayashida, Ishiura.