In the early morning of April 27 (Vietnam time), U23 Vietnam entered the final quarterfinal match at the 2024 U23 Asian Finals with the mindset of being a weaker team than their opponent, U23 Iraq. Coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team have a comfortable mentality at Al Janoub Stadium.
Right after the opening whistle, coach Hoang Anh Tuan let his players play high pressing. U23 Vietnam’s approach to this match caused surprise, causing West Asian opponents to face many difficulties in the first 20 minutes of the match.
Faced with the unpleasant playing style of U23 Vietnam, U23 Iraq used many ball-up situations on both sides but did not create too many surprises. Meanwhile, U23 Vietnam had two most notable situations: shots in the penalty area by Van Truong and Van Tung sending the ball over the bar.
Entering the second half, while Iraq U23 dominated the ball control and tried to force their physical strength down, coach Hoang Anh Tuan’s students encountered more difficulties.
| U23 Vietnam had an effortful match against U23 Iraq even though they still had to admit defeat. (Photo: AFC) |
The turning point of the match came in the 64th minute, goalkeeper Van Chuan fouled Nihad Mohammed in the penalty area and after checking VAR technology, Korean referee Ko Hyung-jin awarded Iraq U23 a penalty. On the 11m mark, Ali Jasim calmly stepped up to defeat goalkeeper Van Chuan, scoring the only goal of the match to bring a 1-0 victory to Iraq U23.
Suddenly conceding a goal, U23 Vietnam faced many difficulties in implementing their playing style in the face of the opponent’s certainty. In the final minutes of the match, U23 Vietnam tried to attack but it was ineffective. Even in the 90+1 minute, Manh Hung received a red card after VAR determined that U23 Vietnam defender kicked Ali Jasim in the shin, causing U23 Vietnam only played with 10 people in the situation of being behind.
At the end of 90 minutes of competition, U23 Vietnam received a 0-1 defeat against U23 Iraq and officially stopped at the 2024 U23 Asian Finals from the quarterfinals.
In other developments, Uzbekistan’s U23 team won 2-0 against Saudi Arabia U23 in a match that was overplayed from the 71st minute, thereby winning a ticket to the semi-finals of the 2024 U23 Asian Championship. .
With this result, the first semi-final is a clash between U23 Uzbekistan and U23 Indonesia, at 9:00 p.m. on April 29. In the second semi-final, Japan U23 meets Iraq U23 U23 at 0:30 on April 30./.
