Coach Tran Minh Chien: 'U16 Vietnam is determined to defeat Thailand to win a ticket to the final'

On the afternoon of June 30, the press conference before the semi-final match of the 2024 Southeast Asian U16 Championship took place. Speaking about the preparations of Vietnam U16, coach Tran Minh Chien said: “We have 2 players with minor injuries. Hopefully, they will recover and be able to serve the team tomorrow. The team's preparation in terms of tactics and physical condition is almost complete.”

Talking about the match with U16 Thailand, the head coach of U16 Vietnam expressed: “This is a difficult match with Thailand. We have to play at 3:00 p.m. in the hot sun, but the difficulty is a common difficulty for both teams.

Thailand U16 comes from the top football background in the region. We always respect Thailand. I think that, having come this far, all 4 teams want to win. Vietnam U16 is determined and will try to win to get a ticket to the final."

For his part, U16 Thailand coach Jadet Meelarp said: “We just had a difficult match against Malaysia. Despite conceding the first goal, we scored 3 goals in the second half and won. Thailand had 1 day less rest than U16 Vietnam. This is definitely not an easy match for U16 Thailand when facing U16 Vietnam”. Talking about the strength of U16 Vietnam, the coach of the young team from the land of the Golden Temple expressed: “U16 Vietnam has good physical strength. I am especially impressed by the ability of U16 Vietnam to change state from defense to attack very quickly and very dangerously”.

The semi-final match between Vietnam U16 and Thailand U16 will take place at 3:00 p.m. tomorrow (July 1) at Manahan Stadium, Surakarta (Indonesia). Starting from the semi-finals of the 2024 AFF U16 Championship, AFF will apply VAR technology to matches. This is also the first time in history that VAR has been applied to a youth football tournament in Southeast Asia.