Vietnam national football team receives good news before match against Iraq; Indonesia U17 eliminated from World Cup
(Baonghean.vn) - Vietnam national football team received good news before the match against Iraq; Indonesia was eliminated from the U17 World Cup; Novak Djokovic easily defeated his junior Carlos Alcaraz in the ATP Finals semi-finals... are notable sports news in the past 24 hours.
Vietnam national football team receives good news before match against Iraq
On the evening of November 18, information from the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) said that striker Nguyen Van Toan can completely play in the upcoming match against the Iraqi national team.
Previously, Van Toan was unable to play the full 90 minutes during the away match in the Philippines. The number 9 of the Vietnam national team left the field in the 84th minute to make way for Van Tung after a collision with defender Tabinas of the Philippines national team.
Fortunately, according to the latest medical examination results, the player from Hai Duong only suffered soft tissue pain, which will not affect his training and competition. This striker can completely enter the field in the match against Iraq if he continues to be selected by coach Philippe Troussier.
In the victory over the Philippines, Van Toan not only scored the opening goal for Vietnam, but also showed a performance full of effort and impressive acceleration, making the opposing team's defense struggle to keep up. This performance helped Van Toan be voted the best player of the match.
To prepare for the upcoming match against Iraq, coach Philippe Troussier let the whole team rest on the morning of November 18. In the afternoon, the Vietnam team was divided into two groups. The starting group in the match against the Philippines only did light exercise, mainly to relax the muscles and maintain the feeling of the ball. The remaining group of players increased the amount of exercise to release inertia, at the same time, practicing more technical and tactical content.
In the opening match, Iraq defeated Indonesia 5-1 and temporarily led Group F with the same number of points but ahead of Vietnam in terms of additional index. The match between Vietnam and Iraq will take place at 7 p.m. on November 21 at My Dinh National Stadium.
Iraqi players play soccer with Vietnamese children on the sidewalk
Immediately after the resounding 5-1 victory over Indonesia in the opening match of Group F of the 2026 World Cup qualifiers, the Iraqi national team traveled by private plane to Hanoi at noon on November 17. The Iraqi national team is stationed at the Novotel Suites Hanoi Hotel, about 4 km from My Dinh Stadium.
As soon as they arrived in Vietnam, the Iraqi team started training to prepare for the match with the host on November 21. In addition, the West Asian team also scored points with a very friendly action. Accordingly, the Iraqi team's Facebook account shared a video of their players happily playing soccer with Vietnamese children right on the sidewalk next to the team's hotel.
The match featured two Iraqi players, striker Ali Al-Hamadi and winger Youssef Amyn. Ali Al-Hamadi assisted Youssef Amyn in scoring a goal against the Vietnamese children. The match was filled with laughter. The Iraqi players then took photos with the Vietnamese children.
Iraq will not have the services of key midfielder Amjad Attwan in their upcoming away match against Vietnam. He was given a rest after sustaining a minor injury in the match against Indonesia a few days ago.
The Iraqi team will have two more training sessions in Hanoi before facing the Vietnamese team. According to statistics, the Iraqi team won three and drew one of the four previous matches against the Vietnamese team. Eight years ago, when they visited My Dinh Stadium in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers, the Iraqi team drew 1-1 with the Vietnamese team.
Indonesia eliminated from U17 World Cup
After losing to Morocco, Indonesia U17 has only one way to enter the knockout round - as one of the best third-placed teams. For this to happen, Burkina Faso U17 must draw with South Korea U17, and the match between Mexico U17 and New Zealand U17 must end in a 0-0 draw. At that time, Indonesia U17 will compare the number of cards with Mexico U17.
However, the miracle did not happen, when Mexico defeated New Zealand with a score of 4-0 to rise to 2nd place in Group F with 4 points, at the same time, pushing Venezuela down to 3rd place. At this time, in the ranking of 3rd place teams, Indonesia is the team with the worst performance with 2 points and is officially eliminated, because the 3rd place teams to continue must have 4 points or more.
Indonesia becomes the next host nation, after India in 2017, to be eliminated in the group stage. At the tournament six years ago, host India finished bottom of the group with 0 points.
Despite being eliminated early, coach Bima Sakti and his team still left their mark with a confident performance in their first participation in the world-class arena. U17 Indonesia played bravely to hold championship candidate Ecuador to a 1-1 draw in the first match, then continued to share points with Panama in the second match. In the decisive match against Morocco, the young players of the archipelago also played bravely and caused many difficulties for their opponents from Africa.
Along with Indonesia, U17 Korea, Poland, Panama, New Caledonia, Canada, Burkina Faso are the teams that had to stop playing early.
France team won with an "unimaginable" score in the EURO 2024 qualifiers
Despite having already secured a ticket to the EURO 2024 finals, the French team still fielded a strong squad when hosting the weakest opponent in Group B, Gibraltar.
Right after E. Santos scored an own goal to help France open the score in the 3rd minute, Marcus Thuram immediately doubled the gap just 1 minute later.
Zaire-Emery scored the third goal in the 16th minute, and Kylian Mbappe added his name to the scoreboard in the 30th minute when he successfully kicked a penalty. The PSG striker then scored two more goals in the 74th and 82nd minutes.
Giroud, after having his goal disallowed by VAR in the 78th minute, scored twice in the 89th and 90+1 minutes. The rest of the scorers included: Warren Zaize-Emery, Jonathan Clauss, Kingsley Coman, Youssouf Fofana, Adrien Rabiot and Ousmane Dembele.
In this match, France had 66% possession, launched a total of 36 shots, 20 of which were on target and brought home 14 goals. Winning the match 14-0, France consolidated the top position in Group B with 21 points, 6 points more than the Netherlands when the EURO 2024 qualifiers have only one round left to end.
Djokovic easily defeated Alcaraz in the ATP Finals semi-finals
Novak Djokovic easily defeated his junior Carlos Alcaraz after 2 sets with a score of 6-3 and 6-2 to enter the final of ATP Finals 2023.
Carlos Alcaraz entered the semi-finals with his senior Novak Djokovic with high confidence. However, the 20-year-old Spaniard could not do anything against a stubborn and brave Nole. The Serbian quickly won 6-3 in the first set.
Set 2 was even easier for the owner of 24 Grand Slam titles. Alcaraz lost the break in the 3rd game, but Djokovic did not miss the opportunity to end the set with a score of 6-2.
Novak Djokovic will now play in the 2023 ATP Finals final against Jannik Sinner, who defeated Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-7 (4-7) and 6-1 to become the first Italian player to reach the final of the ATP Finals.
