U17 Vietnam finished the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2023 Qualifier
U17 Vietnam was unable to continue their journey at the AFC U17 Asian Cup 2023 when lossing 0-1 to U17 Uzbekistan in the final match in the group stage.
24/06/2023 15:51:47
U17 Vietnam must win U17 Uzbekistan to have hope of winning tickets to the quarterfinals of U17 Asian Cup 2023. On the other side, the opponent only needs to draw to pass the group stage. Although the mentality is forced to win, the U17 players in Vietnam still enter the game with caution and advance with certainty on the home side. This is also understandable because U17 Uzbekistan has a higher level, a stronger physical foundation and a more ideal body shape than the “golden star young warriors”. Therefore, it was the Central Asian team that took the initiative after the opening whistle, while U17 Vietnam had to play defensively to hope for loopholes to counterattack. The midfield of U17 Uzbekistan holds the ball very well and organizes a methodical attack. They constantly put the goal of U17 Vietnam on red alert. Attacks in the middle, on the flanks, or especially on the right side – where captain Mirzaev’s presence makes the defenders of U17 Vietnam work very hard.
In the beginning, U17 Vietnam’s defense played very focused, cutting quite well the stopping phases of U17 Uzbekistan. However, under that constant pressure, Hoang Anh Tuan’s players also revealed a gap for the opponent to exploit. From the stretch of the ball of captain Mirzaev in the 25th minute, Shodiboev was present in the penalty area and then hit a quite skillful shot, scoring the goal for U17 Uzbekistan.
Mainly playing defensively for most of the first half, U17 Vietnam had little chance to approach the opponent’s goal. It was not until the last minutes of the first half that Hoang Anh Tuan’s team had some remarkable situations of stopping. For example, in the 43rd minute, Huynh Trieu broke through and fired a shot outside the penalty area, but the ball was too light, leading to goalkeeper Sobirov easily hugging.
At the beginning of the second half, U17 Uzbekistan continued to take the initiative on the field. But after about 15 minutes, U17 Vietnam started to control the game. During the following period, Hoang Anh Tuan’s team played more actively, organized a lot of dangerous braking, forcing the enemy to work very hard. The pieces on the ball in the middle, on the edge of the field, are performed by U17 Vietnam in a variety of ways.
Hoang Anh Tuan’s players actually had a lot of phases approaching the goal of U17 Uzbekistan. However, the strikers of U17 Vietnam were unable to seize the opportunity even though the space in front of them was huge. The Long Vu, Van Nam and especially Huynh Trieu had some shots towards the goal of U17 Uzbekistan, but either finished out, or failed to win against goalkeeper Sobirov.
In the end, U17 Zbekistan won with a score of 1-0, thereby, with U17 Japan – the team that beat U17 India 8-4 won 2 tickets of Group D into the quarterfinals. U17 Vietnam and U17 India are the two teams that left the competition after the group stage.
