Vietnam - Iran confrontation history: "Equally matched"
Although Iran is one of the strongest teams in the region, the history of confrontation between the two sides is not too different.
At 6:00 p.m. on January 12, the Vietnamese team will have an important match in the group stage of the 2019 Asian Cup against Iran. This is one of the strong teams in the region and has reached international level, with the clearest proof being the equal performance against Portugal and Spain at the 2018 World Cup.
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| Vietnam national football team won the friendly tournament in 2010. Photo: Dan Tri |
However, if we look at the history of confrontations between the Vietnamese team and the West Asian team at youth and Olympic levels, both are somewhat equal when Iran is only slightly better than us in a total of 7 encounters.
(1) At the 1000-year Thang Long - Hanoi Football Cup held in 2010, two goals by Anh Duc (minute 45) and Dinh Tung (minute 80) helped the Vietnamese Olympic team defeat the Iranian Olympic team 2-0 in the final match to become the champion of the tournament.
(2) In the rematch that took place 1 month later within the framework of ASIAD 16, Olympic Iran paid off that debt when they narrowly won against Olympic Vietnam with a score of 1-0 in the final match of the group stage.
(3) One year later, the two U21 youth teams of Vietnam and Iran faced each other again in the final match of the 2011 Thanh Nien Newspaper International U21 Tournament. In that match, U21 Vietnam played excellently and won 2-1 thanks to goals by Huu Khoi (minute 33) and The Hung (minute 60).
(4) In 2012, U19 Vietnam and U19 Iran faced each other in the opening match of the U19 Southeast Asian Championship. This time, the final victory with a score of 2-1 belonged to the young players from West Asia.
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| Vietnam Olympic team defeated Iran Olympic team convincingly in 2014. |
(5) The most memorable victory of Vietnamese football against Iranian football was at the 17th ASIAD in Korea. 4 goals by Huy Toan, Hong Quan, Phi Son and Hoang Thinh helped the Vietnamese Olympic team, then led by coach Toshiya Miura, create a shock by defeating the Iranian Olympic team with a score of 4-1 in the first match, thereby opening the door to the next knockout round.
(6) In the quarter-finals of the 2016 U16 Asian Cup, U16 Vietnam, with their physical and fitness disadvantages, lost heavily to their peers from Iran with a score of 0-5.
(7) And in the most recent meeting in the final round of the 2018 AFC U16 Championship group stage, the 5-0 victory once again belonged to the young team from West Asia.
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Facing teams from West Asia, especially Iran, has never been easy, but it is not impossible for Vietnamese football. Therefore, fans have every right to believe that coach Park Hang-seo and his team will achieve favorable results in the upcoming match to nurture the hope of winning a ticket to the knockout round of the 2019 Asian Cup.
