Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Hanoi: Vietnam have kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup after coming from behind to beat Chinese Taipei 4-1 at the My Dinh National Stadium on Thursday evening.
The Vietnamese were given a real scare when Chinese Taipei took the lead through a Wu Chun-ching strike after just seven minutes, but it did not take them long to respond and braces from Le Cong Vinh and Nguyen Van Toan were ultimately enough to hand them maximum points.
With the victory, they are now just two points behind second-placed Iraq in Group F of the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers, with both sides meeting in the neutral venue of Tehran next week in what will be a decisive encounter.
Yet, it did look as though an upset was on the cards on Thursday after Wen Chih-hao’s miscued shot landed right at the feet of Wu, who proceeded to lash a shot past Tran Nguyen Manh and put the visitors ahead.
Nonetheless, right from the restart, Vietnam managed an instant reply as Pham Thanh Luong forced his way down the left before floating in a cross that was met by Cong Vinh with a superb volley into the back of the net.
Nguyen Huu Thang’s charges then edged ahead a minute before the half-hour mark when Tran Dinh Hoang’s right-wing cross was finished off by Nguyen Van Toan, who then made it 3-1 in the 42nd minute as he coolly lifted his shot over the onrushing Chiu Yu-hung after being released by Luong Xuan Truong.
Now in control of proceedings, the hosts looked content to play out the remainder of the match and the second half passed without much incident until the first minute of injury-time, when Cong Vinh latched onto another fine through-ball by Xuan Truong and finished into the top corner to round off the scoring for his side.
The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup.
Photo: VFF