Competing evenly with Qatar, Vietnam confidently entered the U23 Asian Cup Finals
(Baonghean.vn) - "The weak point of U23 Qatar is the defense, we will attack" - Mr. Park declared and in fact U23 Vietnam has done that. Confidence has brought us to the final match, the big dream has become reality.
Historically, the two teams have met four times: Vietnam won two, drew one and lost one match against Qatar. Qatar U23 brought to China the strongest squad, with key investments to conquer the 2022 World Cup.
Roll call before the ball rolls
In this squad, there are 8 players who participated in the 2017 U20 World Cup, including: Yousef Hassan (goalkeeper), Salem Al-Hajri (defender), Ahmed Moein (midfielder), Akram Afif (forward), Sultan Al-Brake (defender), Assim Madibo (midfielder), Almoez Ali (forward) and Tarek Salman (midfielder). On the Vietnamese side, coach Park Hang-seo has 6 players who participated in the 2017 U20 World Cup, in which the best player is goalkeeper Bui Tien Dung.
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| Quang Hai was the best player of the match. Screenshot |
Qatar U23 has 5 players playing abroad including: Khalid Muneer, Ahmed Moein, Nasser Al-Nassr (Spain); Assim Madibo, Akram Afif (Germany). Among them, the best player is Almoez Ali, who scored 5 out of 7 goals of Qatar at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship. Vietnam U23 only has Luong Xuan Truong playing in Korea in the 2017 season, with 2 appearances and a total of 106 minutes.
Coach Felix Sanchez's team is the only team that still has a winning streak. They have the leading scorer Almoez Ali with 5 goals. The scoring efficiency of U23 Qatar is 1.75 goals/match (scoring 7 goals, conceding 3 goals) while U23 Vietnam is 1.25 goals/match (scoring 5 goals, conceding 5 goals).
Coach Felix Sanchez's favorite formation is 4-2-3-1, this style of play helps them have 51% possession of the ball while Mr. Park often plays 4-5-1 and has only 36% possession. Obviously, the statistics are in favor of the West Asian team, the candidate for the championship this time.
Pride of Vietnam
As the Korean coach, Mr. Park has carefully studied the playing style of U23 Qatar. They are especially dangerous in the second half of the first half and the beginning of the second half. Of the 7 goals scored by U23 Qatar, 4 were scored between the 30th minute and the end of the first half, and 2 goals in the 53rd and 55th minutes respectively. Mr. Park has made precise calculations for every minute, playing style and player changes.
U23 Qatar is really too strong and we still had to concede a penalty in the 39th minute, despite defending in large numbers. Coach Felix Sanchez focused on exploiting the left wing, where Xuan Manh was guarded by the mobility of defender Al Brake and midfielder Akram Afif.
In fact, in the second half, when Duc Chinh was brought in to replace Cong Phuong, Hong Duy replaced Duy Manh due to a facial injury, switching to a 4-3-3 formation, playing an open game with U23 Qatar, the game was more balanced.
Van Duc dropped back to play midfield with Duc Huy and Xuan Truong. Meanwhile, Van Thanh switched wings with Xuan Manh, playing right back to cover Akram Afif and coordinate better with Quang Hai. Miraculously, the game was reversed, in the 70th minute, Quang Hai equalized 1-1 after letting the ball hit the crossbar from an indirect free kick from 11m.
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| U23 Vietnam played an equal game against U23 Qatar. Screenshot |
If the ball possession rate of U23 Qatar in the first half was 67.5%, then in the second half we played much more explosively. Many U23 Qatar players had to proactively receive yellow cards to protect their net. The two wings Hong Duy and Quang Hai made life difficult for the Qatar defenders with their aggressive but still technical playing style.
In the last 10 minutes, coach Felix Sanchez sent his troops to attack. In the 86th minute, in a chaotic situation in front of goalkeeper Tien Dung's goal after a corner kick on the right wing, player wearing number 19 Ali scored a close-range goal to raise the score to 2-1 for U23 Qatar, but we were still not shaken.
Just 2 minutes later, Quang Hai created a masterpiece from a long shot into the Qatar goal. Even if Van Duc and Duc Chinh were luckier, we would have won within 90 minutes of play.
Despite having studied U23 Vietnam carefully, coach Felix Sanchez was still very surprised when the only representative of Southeast Asian football played an equal game. What was also surprising was that in the 30 minutes of extra time, U23 Vietnam, despite having to rest for 1 day less and having a disadvantageous physique, was still the team that attacked more.
The miracle came when we defeated U23 Qatar in the fateful penalty shootout thanks to the excellence of goalkeeper Tien Dung!
Great! So great! Everything happened like a fairy tale happening in China, thank you Mr. Park and the beloved U23 Vietnam players!
Historic moment brings U23 Vietnam to the Asian final
(Baonghean.vn) - Drawing 2-2 in 120 minutes, overcoming U23 Qatar after a tense penalty shootout, U23 Vietnam continued to extend its historical feat, proudly entering the final of the 2018 U23 Asia.
U23 Vietnam defeated referee Muhammad Taqi
(Baonghean.vn) - In the semi-final match between U23 Vietnam and U23 Qatar this afternoon (January 23), the referee awarded Qatar a penalty kick and many situations of calling penalties on the Vietnamese team made the online community boil.