Hai Phong midfielder escapes red card after headbutt; Vietnam women's team ranked 34th in the world

Hai Phong midfielder escapes red card after headbutt

In the 67th minute, Van Toi and Gustavo collided and fell to the ground. The Thanh Hoa striker got angry and pushed the Hai Phong defender hard. Van Toi immediately rushed forward and headbutted Gustavo hard in the face. Afterwards, defender Trung Hieu had to pull his teammate away from the point of collision while the players from both sides continued to exchange words.

Referee Nguyen Trung Kien witnessed the entire incident and gave both Van Toi and Gustavo yellow cards. On the sidelines, Thanh Hoa's coaching staff reacted, saying that Van Toi should have received a red card. But referee Kien did not change his decision.

Dang Van Toi headbutted Gustavo Costa in the face and received a yellow card in Thanh Hoa's 0-1 loss to Hai Phong in round 19 of V-League 2022. Photo: VnE

9 minutes later, Hai Phong scored from a sensitive ball. Goalkeeper Thanh Diep punched the ball poorly after a difficult cross from the right wing by Trieu Viet Hung. Rimario chose the right position to head the ball, center back Gustavo Ana and Trinh Van Loi tried to clear the danger but the referee team determined that the ball had crossed the goal line, so the goal was counted for Hai Phong.

Center back Gustavo protested to the referee, claiming that the ball had not crossed the line. The TV cameras were not clear enough to confirm the situation. In the end, Hai Phong won 1-0 away from home.

Thanh Hoa is stuck in 7th place with 24 points. Meanwhile, Hai Phong takes 2nd place from Binh Dinh with 32 points, 2 points more than its opponent but has played 1 more match. The port city team is 2 points behind the top team Hanoi FC but has played 2 more matches.

Vietnam women's team ranked 34th in the world

In 2022, the outstanding achievement of the Vietnamese women's team was their impressive performance at the 2022 Asian Women's Football Finals in India, thereby successfully winning a ticket to the 2023 World Cup scheduled to take place in Australia and New Zealand next year. In addition, coach Mai Duc Chung and his team also won the gold medal in women's football at the 31st SEA Games held last May.

However, the lack of good results at the 2022 Southeast Asian Championship is also an experience for the Vietnamese team to look back at themselves, in order to continue to rejuvenate the force with new factors that can complete their tasks next year. Therefore, it is completely understandable that the Vietnamese women's team is ranked 34th in the world, down 1 place compared to before. However, Vietnam's ranking is still higher than Thailand (ranked 41) and Myanmar (ranked 48).

Vietnam women's team ranked 34th in the world. Photo: VnE

In Asia alone, the Vietnamese women's team ranked 6th. Meanwhile, the North Korean women's team ranked first in the continent, but 10th in the world. Japan ranked second in the continent and 11th in the world, Australia ranked 3rd and 13th in the world, China ranked 4th and 16th in the world, and South Korea ranked 5th and 17th in the world.

In this latest ranking, the US women's team continues to be number 1 in the world, Sweden is ranked 2nd and pushed the German women's team down to 3rd place. The England team is ranked 4th, France is ranked 5th, Spain alone is up to 6th place, Canada is ranked 7th, the Netherlands is ranked 8th and Brazil is ranked 9th.

Kante faces the risk of missing the 2022 World Cup

According to L'Equipe, N'Golo Kante has returned to training with Chelsea. However, he has suffered a relapse of his injury, the severity of which is currently unknown. At this rate, Kante will have a hard time recovering in time for the 2022 World Cup, let alone regaining his form.

"We are waiting for Kante's injury test results. Kante's situation does not look good. That is disappointing for him personally and for us. We have to wait and see what problem Kante has before deciding," coach Graham Potter spoke about his student's condition.

Kante on the journey with the French team to win the 2018 World Cup. Photo:Reuters

Kante last played in Chelsea's 2-2 draw with Tottenham in the Premier League on August 14. In the 85th minute, the French international left the field with a limp and was later diagnosed with a hamstring injury.

Coach Didier Deschamps will soon announce the preliminary squad of the French team for the 2022 World Cup. At the moment, Kante is still an important part of the "Les Blues" midfield. It would be a disaster for the French team if Kante were absent, especially when Paul Pogba is also racing time to fully recover.