Midfielder Khuat Van Khang: 'The whole team has prepared carefully to surprise U23 Iraq'

On the afternoon of April 24, local time, the Vietnam U23 team returned to the training ground to prepare for the quarter-final match against Iraq U23 at the 2024 AFC U23 Championship. With only 2 days of time, coach Hoang Anh Tuan prioritized solutions to restore energy for his players both physically and mentally, while carefully developing plans for a "knock-out" match.

Earlier in the morning, the players received medical care and recovered at the hotel swimming pool. The afternoon training session also only took place with moderate exercise, mainly to help the players regain their excitement and look forward to the quarter-final match with the most positive spirit.

The training program was also adjusted by coach Hoang Anh Tuan to suit the nature of a knockout match, in which tactical options were carefully calculated and the possibility of a penalty shootout was not ruled out. That was also the reason why at the end of the training session, the coaching staff divided the players into groups to compete in a penalty shootout in the form of a mini-game with prizes, thereby both training the skills of the goalkeeper and the players and avoiding tension for the whole team.

In an interview before the training session, midfielder Khuat Van Khang said that after finishing the group stage and entering the preparation phase for the quarter-final match, coach Hoang Anh Tuan shared many things with the players to strengthen the team's spirit, motivating the team to have the best concentration and the highest determination for the quarter-final match against U23 Iraq.

Khuat Van Khang said that the team will have a meeting to analyze the opponent and tactics for the match. However, according to Van Khang's personal assessment, through the matches in the group stage, U23 Iraq has shown that it is a strong team.

“West Asian teams are always highly rated. Their strengths are their physique and physical strength. To create a surprise against Iraq, the whole team will have to prepare carefully and fight together with the highest determination,” Khuat Van Khang said.

At the 2024 AFC U23 Championship finals, Khuat Van Khang is one of the players who has received a lot of expectations from coach Hoang Anh Tuan. Although he has not reached his desired peak performance, this midfielder has had quite a good performance, notably a beautiful free kick goal in the match against U23 Malaysia.

The goal was compared to Quang Hai's "rainbow in the snow" masterpiece at the 2018 U23 Asian Cup finals. Sharing his feelings after scoring this goal, Khuat Van Khang said: "I am very happy to have scored such a beautiful goal. This is also a situation that I have practiced regularly. Talking about this goal, I remember Mr. Quan Van Chuan. After the team meeting, Mr. Chuan told me to pay attention to the opposing team's goalkeeper, when I run, the goalkeeper will move a step. If I predict the near corner, pay attention to kicking back. Thanks to Mr. Chuan's reminder, I was able to kick well like that."

According to the plan, this afternoon (April 25), the U23 Vietnam team will have a training session to practice tactics and select personnel for the starting lineup for the quarter-final match against U23 Iraq. This match will take place at 8:30 p.m. local time on April 26 (0:30 a.m. on April 27, Vietnam time).