UAE - beautiful memories of Vietnam Team

Despite coming to this tournament as the reigning AFF Cup champions, coach Park Hang-seo and his team are still not highly rated by continental football experts for their ability to succeed. Simply put, the Vietnamese team must be in a group with powerful teams.

The Vietnamese team played very successfully at the 2019 Asian Cup. Photo: AFP

Besides the 2007 Asian Cup champion, Iraq, there is also Iran - a regular at the World Cup finals and Yemen. At the end of the group stage, the "golden dragon warriors" finished in 3rd place in Group G, with 1 win against Yemen (2 - 0), and 2 losses against Iraq (2 - 3) and Iran (0 - 2).

Thanks to a better sub-index than the third-placed teams in other groups, Coach Park Hang-seo and his team "squeezed through the narrow door" to be present in the group of 16 strongest teams. And the opponent of the Vietnam team in the round of 16 is the Jordan team, a fairly strong team from the West Asian region.

In the match that took place on January 20, 2019, the Jordanian team took the lead quite early (minute 39). Thanks to their determination, the Vietnamese team brought the match back to the starting line with a goal by Nguyen Cong Phuong (minute 51). In the end, Coach Park Hang-seo and his team won the right to continue after the penalty shootout.

The match between Vietnam and UAE in the group stage of the 2007 Asian Cup. Photo: TL

The victory over Jordan helped the Vietnamese team make history by reaching the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup for the first time. Unfortunately for the representative of Southeast Asia, the next "obstacle" is the Japanese team, the number 1 team in Asia, with a series of famous stars in the squad.

However, Que Ngoc Hai and his teammates made the Japanese team "sweat" to win with a minimum score of 1 - 0. Notably, the only goal of the match came from a penalty, thanks to the intervention of VAR technology. The Vietnamese team left the UAE with their heads held high.

It has been more than 2 years since the Vietnam National Team had the opportunity to compete in the UAE. Experts and football fans in the country are hoping that the "fate" of the UAE will bring positive results for the Vietnam National Team in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, against the Indonesia Team, the Malaysia Team and the UAE Team.

With the advantage in hand (3 points more than the second-placed team, Thailand), the opportunity for Coach Park Hang-seo and his team to qualify for the final qualifying round as the first team in Group G or one of the four second-placed teams with the best results, is quite clear. If that happens, UAE is truly a "promising land" for the Vietnam Team.

And don't forget, the first victory of the Vietnam team in the Asian Cup was against the UAE team, in the group stage of the 2007 Asian Cup, which took place at My Dinh Stadium. Two goals by Huynh Quang Thanh and Le Cong Vinh helped the Vietnam team defeat the UAE team with a score of 2-0, creating an important stepping stone to qualify for the round of 16.

Most recently, in the 4th match of Group G, which took place on November 14, 2019, Coach Park Hang-seo and his team also defeated the UAE team with a score of 1-0, thanks to a long-range shot by striker Nguyen Tien Linh. Thereby, it can be affirmed that: UAE is a name that evokes beautiful memories of the Vietnam Team in the past./.