Asian Football Confederation comments on Vietnam team's chances; Haaland sets super record in Premier League

AFC predicts Vietnam team will have difficulty passing the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup

After the two matches in the second qualifying round of the 2026 World Cup ended, the Asian Football Confederation released some notable statistics about the matches. In a recent article, AFC mentioned Vietnam.

Specifically, the Asian Football Confederation believes that although the Vietnam team has won one match, they still need to make more efforts if they want to get a ticket to the third round.

"Seven of the teams that have made it through to the third round of the AFC Asian Qualifiers for the 2022 FIFA World Cup have set the pace in their groups. However, China, Lebanon, Oman, Syria and Vietnam are struggling and will need to pick up the pace when qualifying resumes in March," the AFC wrote.

After 2 matches, Vietnam has 3 points and is temporarily ranked 2nd on the rankings. In terms of results, coach Philippe Troussier and his team have a clear chance to continue, because the two opponents Indonesia and Philippines are both having difficulty in earning points. However, the red team still has to face 4 more matches before the 3rd round begins.

AFC also released many interesting statistics of some other teams in the Asian region. Specifically, Qatar is the team that has scored the most goals after the first 2 matches with 11 goals, Chinese Taipei (Group D), Nepal (Group H) and Palestine (Group I) are the three teams that have not scored any goals or Afghanistan (Group A), Myanmar (Group B), Singapore (Group C), Chinese Taipei (Group D), Pakistan (Group G) and Nepal (Group H) are the teams that have not scored any points after 2 matches...

Coach Gong Oh-kyun has a smooth debut with Hanoi Police

On the evening of November 25, Hanoi Police Club welcomed Hoang Anh Gia Lai in the qualifying round of the 2023-2024 Casper National Cup. In this match, Hanoi Police was considered to be superior in both expertise and force. This was also the debut match of Mr. Gong Oh-kyun - Former coach of U23 Vietnam with Hanoi Police Club. The Korean strategist promised to breathe new life into the playing style of the reigning V.League champion.

However, Hanoi Police encountered difficulties right from the start of the match. In the 14th minute, Ngoc Quang had a diagonal shot that defeated goalkeeper Filip Nguyen, opening the score for Hoang Anh Gia Lai.

Conceding the goal, coach Gong Oh-kyun's players started to attack quickly to find an equalizer. Before the end of the first half, Hanoi Police had an equalizer. From a free kick in the 36th minute, Viet Anh headed the ball, defender Filho cleared the ball on the goal line but it hit Ho Ngoc Thang and flew back into the net, equalizing the score 1-1.

In the second half, Hanoi Police continued to take the initiative. A few dangerous situations were created, but the final handling was not good.

On the other side of the battle line, Hoang Anh Gia Lai also did not hide their intention to drag the match into a penalty shootout when they deployed a style of play with a large defense.

However, all of Hoang Anh Gia Lai's plans were "bankrupt" before the match ended. In the 74th minute, Van Phuong crossed the ball, Bao Toan headed the ball to Geovane's position. This foreign player shot from close range, goalkeeper Duong Van Loi pushed the ball but it went to Jeferson's position, the Brazilian player finished decisively, scoring the second goal for the home team.

In the remaining time, the Hanoi Police players still stood firm against the pressure of Hoang Anh Gia Lai to keep their net clean. In the end, Hanoi Police won 2-1. This result helped coach Gong Oh-kyun have a favorable debut day. The police team will face The Cong - Viettel in the round of 16 of the 2023-2024 National Cup.

Haaland sets super record in Premier League

Man City could not maintain their record winning streak at home, when Liverpool equalized 1-1 in the final minutes, but personally Erling Haaland had a memorable match. The Norwegian striker was the author of the opening goal with a strike in the 27th minute, after a mistake by Alisson Becker and an impressive assist from Nathan Ake.

This was Haaland's first goal against Liverpool in the Premier League. That also means he has scored against 20 of the 21 opponents he has faced in the top flight of English football. Brentford are the only team Haaland has yet to score against. The former Dortmund player has a great chance of conquering the net of all Premier League opponents this season.

While waiting for the two matches against Brentford, which will not take place until next year, Haaland has just set a new record in the Premier League.

Accordingly, Haaland became the fastest player to reach 50 goals in the Premier League history. He only needed 48 matches to conquer this number. Previously, the fastest record of scoring 50 goals was set by Andy Cole in 1994, after 65 matches.

Stars like Sergio Aguero (81 matches), Thierry Henry (83), Luis Suarez (86) and Harry Kane (90) played many more matches than Haaland to reach the 50-goal mark.

Last season, upon his Premier League debut, Haaland broke the record with 36 goals and won the European Golden Shoe award.

With 14 goals in 13 matches this season, the 23-year-old striker continues to be considered the brightest candidate for the Premier League Golden Boot and Golden Boot titles.

Haaland also recently set a record for the fastest time to score 20 away goals in the Premier League, in just 24 games.

In his first season at Etihad, Haaland was named Premier League Player of the Year.

Haaland maintains a goal-scoring performance every 80 minutes on average. Other records are waiting for the striker born in 2000 to conquer.

Barcelona lucky draw at Vallecano

In round 14 of La Liga, right after the opening whistle, Barca raised their attacking formation while Vallecano played very proactively. In the 10th minute, De Jong lacked observation and had the ball stolen right in front of Barca's penalty area. Fortunately, the Vallecano player's shot was not dangerous enough to beat goalkeeper Pena. 5 minutes later, Barca had their first dangerous chance when Pedri finished with technique but Vallecano's goalkeeper caught the ball neatly.

In the final stages of the first half, Vallecano pushed up their formation and put pressure on Barca. As a result, the home team scored the opening goal. After a Barca player tried to clear the ball, Unai Lopez immediately volleyed a quick shot from a distance, leaving goalkeeper Pena helpless. 1-0 for Vallecano.

In the second half, Barca increased the pace of the match but encountered an organized and focused defense of Vallecano. It was not until the 76th minute that Barca created the most dangerous move thanks to the appearance of Raphinha. The former Leeds player shot the ball low and dangerously, leaving goalkeeper Dimitrievski helpless, but the post saved Vallecano. Immediately after, Robert Lewandowski swooped in to score the rebound, but this time, Dimitrievski prevented the Polish star from celebrating.

Finally, Barca's efforts were rewarded when in the 83rd minute, Lejeune scored an own goal while marking Lewandowski. 1-1 for Barca was the final result of this match. Despite the draw, Barca remained in 3rd place with 31 points while Vallecano ranked 8th with 19 points.

Determining the 4 teams entering the U17 World Cup semi-finals

Recently, the final match in the quarter-finals of the U17 World Cup between U17 Mali and U17 Morocco ended with a score of 1-0 in favor of Mali. Thus, the 4 teams that won tickets to the semi-finals were determined to be U17 Germany, U17 Argentina, U17 France and 17 Mali.

Mali and Morocco were evenly matched from the opening whistle. Both teams created dangerous chances but no goals were scored in the first half.

In the second half, U17 Mali were the more proactive players. All their efforts were rewarded with a goal in the 81st minute by Ibrahim Diarra. After being behind, the Moroccan players tried to find an equalizer, but U17 Mali played a solid defense, causing all of Morocco's attacks to fail. The score of 1-0 remained until the end of the match.

In the earlier match, U17 France had a tough match against Asian representative Uzbekistan to get a ticket to the next round. Both teams created an overwhelming game and it was not until the 83rd minute that France had the opening goal thanks to Ismail Bouneb. That was also the only goal of the match.

On the previous match day, U17 Germany defeated U17 Spain 1-0 while U17 Argentina had a 3-0 win over U17 Brazil to qualify for the next round.

Accordingly, U17 Germany and U17 Argentina will face each other in the semi-final match taking place at 3:30 p.m. (Vietnam time) on November 28. The remaining match between U17 France and U17 Mali will take place at 7:00 p.m. the same day.