Vietnam reach knock-out round

November 15, 2010 | 20:11

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Olympic Vietnam made it through to the next round of the ASIAD-16 despite losing 0-1 to Olympic Iran in Guangzhou, China on Saturday.

Iran opened the scoring just three minutes after the first whistle when Hosseini Sayed headed one home thanks to goalkeeper Tan Truong’s mistake.

After the goal, Vietnam tried to come from behind but could not break the strong Iranian defence. Trong Hoang’s shot in the 27th minute was blocked by Iran’s defender.

Vietnam played better when Duc Thien came from the bench after the break, and produced more attacks than in the first half but Anh Duc and Trong Hoang missed real chances to equalise in the 78th and 88th minutes and the team conceded a 1-0 loss.

The same day, Turkmenistan drew 1-1 with Bahrain in Group B.

As a result, Iran topped Group B with three wins, followed by Turkmenistan (one win, one draw,one loss), Vietnam (one win, two losses) and Bahrain (one draw, two losses).

According to the ASIAD-16 football regulations, 24 teams are divided into six groups. The two top teams in each group and four of the best third-place teams from the six groups advance to the second round. Vietnam, who are among the four best third-place teams, qualified for the knock-out round.

This is the first time the Olympic team of Vietnam has advanced to the knock-out round in the Asian Games, making this a giant step for the country in the continental football tournament and delighting coach Calisto and all the Vietnamese fans.

Tomorrow, Vietnam will play the DPRK, a very strong team that beat the RoK, Palestine and Jordan in Group C.

Nhandan

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