UEFA punishes Neymar; U23 Asian Qualifiers; Messi and Ronaldo “silent”

U23 Vietnam surpasses Thailand, tops group K

Quang Hai sealed a 6-0 victory for Vietnam with a successful penalty kick. Photo: Lam Thoa

U23 Thailand showed their strength with a resounding 4-0 victory over U23 Indonesia, a team whose core players were the Southeast Asian U22 champions. However, the team from the land of the golden pagodas still had to regretfully finish second in Group K because in the following match, U23 Vietnam also beat U23 Brunei in a set of tennis.

In this match, Duc Chinh opened fire at the first opportunity, crushing criticism of his poor performance over the past long period. Meanwhile, Quang Hai only entered the field for the last 45 minutes of the match but left a strong impression when he had his hand in all 3 final goals of U23 Vietnam.

Japan and South Korea show off their power as continental football powers

Japan U23 and South Korea U23 both had a spectacular opening match with an 8-0 victory over Macau U23 and Taiwan U23 respectively, thereby helping them temporarily take the top spot in Group I and G.

In Group G, U23 Korea will have to compete fiercely with U23 Australia for the top spot. The kangaroo team also had a devastating 6-0 victory over U23 Cambodia last night.

Guus Hiddink was jubilant on his debut day:Famous Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, who is leading the Chinese U23 team, had a great opening match with a 5-0 victory over Laos U23. In this group J, China U23 will have to compete directly with Malaysia U23, who just defeated the Philippines U23 3-0.

West Asian teams also have clear differentiation:U23 Oman and U23 Qatar both had easy victories over Nepal and Afghanistan respectively. Meanwhile, U23 Palestine created the most shocking victory in the first round of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers when they defeated Sri Lanka 9-0.

U23 Iraq and U23 Iran are in the same group C. Last night, they both won against U23 Yemen and U23 Turkmenistan. This is also a very tough group. Meanwhile, U23 UAE and U23 Saudi Arabia both scored 6 goals against Lebanon and Maldives.

Argentina suffered a painful defeat on the day Messi returned

Leaving behind the failure at the 2018 World Cup, Lionel Messi agreed to return to the Argentina national team in this training session. Coach Scaloni included Messi in the squad for the friendly match against Venezuela at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. However, once again, Messi tasted defeat in the national team shirt.

Argentina started the game confidently but their sleepy defense caused them to concede a goal in the 6th minute. Salomon Randon rushed down to finish hard, defeating goalkeeper Armani to open the score for Venezuela.

By the end of the first half, Argentina conceded a second goal with a beautiful long-range shot from Murillo after a counter-attack. Argentina's attacking efforts were only converted into a goal by Lautaro Martinez in the 59th minute. In the 76th minute, Venezuela was awarded a penalty and Josef Martinez defeated the Argentine goalkeeper, sealing a 3-1 victory.

After the match, coach Scaloni spoke up to defend Messi and announced that the Barca star would not participate in the upcoming match against Morocco due to "risk of injury".

EURO 2020 Qualifiers: Ronaldo is silent, Portugal draws disappointingly

For the first time since the 2018 World Cup, Ronaldo returned to the Portugal squad to begin their European title defence. Portugal's opening match was against Ukraine at home. The reigning EURO 2016 champions completely dominated their opponents, controlling the ball and shooting a lot but were unlucky in front of the Ukrainian goal. The match ended in a 0-0 draw. Ukraine deserved the points thanks to their disciplined defensive tactics and fighting spirit.

In Group H, France, despite playing away at Moldova, had no difficulty crushing their opponents 4-1 thanks to goals from Griezmann, Varane, Giroud and Mbappe.

Sterling scored a hat-trick, England destroyed the Czech Republic

In the Euro 2020 qualifying match in Group A, England easily crushed the Czech Republic 5-0 at home thanks to Sterling's brilliant performance. In the first half, the Man City star scored 1 goal to help the "Three Lions" lead 2-0. Harry Kane scored the remaining goal for the home team.

In the second half, Sterling turned Wembley into his own stage when he scored two more goals to complete his hat-trick, helping England lead the Czech Republic 4-0. At the end of the match, under pressure from the "Three Lions", Tomas Kalas clumsily kicked the ball into his own net, causing the Czech Republic to suffer a crushing 0-5 defeat. This great victory helped the "Three Lions" temporarily rise to the top of Group A. On the contrary, the Czech Republic was pushed down to the bottom of the table.

France crushes Moldova

Having to play away to Moldova in a match within the framework of Group H of the Euro 2020 qualifiers, but with superior strength, France turned Zimbru Stadium into their home ground. The reigning world champions finished off their opponents in the first half when they took a 3-0 lead thanks to 3 goals from Griezmann, Varane and Giroud.

EURO 2020 qualifying results

Table A
England 5-0 Czech Republic
Table B
Portugal 0-0 Ukraine
Luxembourg 2-1 Lithuania
Group H
Albania 0-2 Türkiye
Andorra 0-2 Iceland
Moldova 1-4 France

In the second half, Les Bleus scored another goal thanks to Mbappe. Meanwhile, Moldova scored a consolation goal thanks to Vladimir Ambros. With a 4-1 victory, France temporarily took the lead in Group H.

UEFA punishes Neymar

The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) has decided to punish PSG striker Neymar for making “offensive comments” after the defeat to MU in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16. Neymar could not play in this match due to injury.

The Brazilian star expressed his displeasure when VAR determined that a penalty (a handball from Presnel Kimpembe) in the last minute allowed Marcus Rashford to score, giving MU a 3-1 victory. This victory helped the Old Trafford team make a spectacular comeback with the away goals rule (MU lost 0-2 in the first leg at home).

Disappointed by his team's shocking elimination, Neymar demanded to rush into the referees' room. Later, Neymar wrote on his personal page: "It's a disgrace. They gave the task to four men who don't understand football to watch the slow-motion replays in front of the TV (referring to the video assistant referees)."

Following the announcement of the sanction, UEFA's Disciplinary Committee will consider the punishment for Neymar. The risk of the PSG striker being banned is very high. In June, goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was banned for three European matches after a critical television comment about referee Michael Oliver following his former club Juventus's Champions League quarter-final defeat to Real Madrid.