Tue, 30 Nov, -0001
Kuala Lumpur: Vietnam stormed into the finals of the AFC U-19 Championship 2014 after downing Australia 5-1 in their Group F qualifying match at Kuala Lumpur Stadium in Malaysia on Monday.
The Vietnamese strongly led the first half 3-1 before adding two more goals to topple Australia off the top of the table standings to punch their tickets to the October 2014 finals in Myanmar.
The match’s eventual MVP Nguyen Cong Phuong opened the scoring on nine minutes for Nguyen Quoc Tuan’s side who were on fire and doubled the lead through Hoang Thanh Tung’s contribution only six minutes later.
Vietnam striker Nguyen Van Toan then took it further to 3-0 as he scored against the Young Soccerros after 44 minutes but Paul Okon’s boys were not willing to settle with such a score line as Petros Skapetis brought it one down three minutes into stoppage time before the break.
Nguyen Cong Phuong then doubled his personal tally in the match by finding Australia’s’ net again 10 minutes after the restart before defender Le Van Son rubbed salt on the Australians’ wound with a penalty kick on 70 minutes to settle the game at 5-1.
Vietnam, who won all their three games in the group, have now became the first team to qualify for the tournament proper through the ongoing qualifiers where 37 countries are contesting in nine groups for berths in the finals.
The winners of the nine groups, five from the West Zone and four from the East, will each book a ticket to the finals alongside six second best-placed sides and hosts Myanmar.
Australia, finishing on six points from three matches, now play the waiting game as they await the results of the other eight groups to see if they can claim one of the six second-best tickets.