Qualifiers Group A: Vietnam 3-2 IR Iran
Viet Tri City: Australia and Vietnam kicked off their AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup™ Uzbekistan 2024 Qualifiers Round 2 Group A campaigns with wins at the Viet Tri Stadium on Saturday.
06/06/2023 15:51:16
Iran shocked Vietnam by taking the lead in the ninth minute, with the unfortunate Nguyen Thi Nhu Quynh sending the ball into her own net.
Vietnam’s response, however, was almost immediate with midfielder Hoang Thi Ngoc Anh drawing them level just a minute later.
Ngoc Minh Chuyen (pictured below) put Vietnam ahead in the 37th minute and Le Thi Trang’s 64th minute effort looked to have sealed the points.
Iran, however, refused to give up and narrowed the deficit through Hasti Foroozandeh’s 89th minute spot-kick but Vietnam held on for the points.
Evaluating the match, U20 Vietnam Women’s head coach Ijiri Akira said: “In this match we achieved our goal of winning, which is a very good result. However, I have never been satisfied with the players because if we are satisfied, the players will not have the motivation to keep trying. The young players who were substituted in today’s match, despite their lack of playing experience, were not the reason why we were shortened. For the two teams Australia and Lebanon, I watched the match between these two teams. However, it is difficult to evaluate. We will have specific tactics for the next two matches.”
Australia 5-0 Lebanon
Seeking to maintain their streak of having qualified for every edition of the tournament since making their debut in 2006, Australia were quick to settle and needed only 10 minutes to open the scoring through forward Kahli Johnson.
Lebanon found themselves further behind just five minutes later with Gemma Ferris doubling Australia’s lead.
Lebanon adopted a more defensive approach after that and Australia had to wait till the 80th minute for their third, with forward Jynaya Santos providing the final touch.
Australia closed off the game with a flourish, with Sienna Saveska (90+1) and Claudia Cicco (90+4) adding two more goals.
Vietnam will play Lebanon on Monday while Iran will aim to bounce back against Australia.
Source: AFC
