Shenzhen Nanling Tielang 1-5 Thai Son Nam
A five-goal blitz in the second half earned Vietnam’s Thai Son Nam FC a 5-1 win over Shenzhen Nanling Tieland FC on Friday afternoon as the Vietnamese…
Saul Olomo Campo scored a hat-trick while Tran Long Vu and Le Quoc Nam also found the back of the net as Thai Son Nam over-ran the Chinese side, who had taken the lead in the 18th minute through Zeng Lang’s top class curling effort.
Victory for Thai Son Nam against Bank of Beirut on Saturday in their second Group D game will ensure the Vietnamese side advance to the quarter-finals at the top of the group while Shenzhen must beat the Lebanese team on Sunday to have any chance of advancing.
“I can’t complain about my players because they played a very good game,” said Thai Son Nam coach Bruno Garcia. “In the first half we fought face-to-face but, even though they scored, the teams were at the same level.
“My team were better in the second half than Shenzhen and I want to congratulate the players because they followed the match plan 100 percent. We conducted a very good game and my team deserves this victory.”
Both teams hit the frame of the goal in the opening period before Zeng put Shenzhen in front in the 18th minute with a curling left-foot shot into the top corner from distance that goalkeeper Ngo Dinh Thuan could do little to stop.
But the Vietnamese battled back in the second half and Campo scored from the spot after Long Vu was brought down in the area in the 26th minute and, three minutes later, Long Vu netted from a tight angle after breaking down the right to give Thai Som Nam the win.
Quoc Nam doubled his side’s advantage from close range with four minutes left on the clock and Campo claimed two in the dying minutes – one on the break, the other from long range – as Shenzhen desperately pushed forward looking for a late reprieve that never came.
“We lost the game by ourselves,” said Shenzhen coach Adil Amarante. “In the first half we had a very good advantage but we couldn’t hold on to it and in the second half we had some missed shots and we weren’t able to maintain our advantage.
“In the last few minutes we tried to play a power play, but we made some mistakes and that’s why we lost the game.”
