Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Phnom Penh: Last season’s Cambodia league MVP Chan Vathanaka came off the bench to score twice as Cambodia recorded a 3-0 victory over Macau in the first leg of their 2018 FIFA World Cup and 2019 AFC Asian Cup first round joint qualifier on Thursday.
Cambodia struggled to make the break through against their East Asian visitors and ten minutes into the second-half the home side’s Korean coach Lee Tae-hoon freshened up his midfield with the introduction of Chan Vathanaka in place of Sos Suhana.
And the substitution eventually paid dividends with Chan, who scored four of Beoungket Rubber’s six goals in their 2013 AFC President’s Cup hammering of Sri Lanka Army SC, breaking the deadlock in the 63rd minute.
The 21-year-old midfielder then further settled the nerves of the majority of the 8000 fans that had packed into the Army Stadium in the Cambodian capital when he doubled his side’s advantage with ten minutes left to play before skipper Khuon Laboravy added a third four minutes into stoppage time.
Cambodia’s three-goal cushion will give them confidence going into next week’s second leg, when the two sides renew acquaintances in Macau on Tuesday.
The six Round 1 winners will advance to Round 2 where the 34 highest-ranked teams await. The 40 nations will be drawn into eight groups of five teams and compete according to a double round robin format.
The Round 2 qualification matches will be held between June 11, 2015 to March 29, 2016.
The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 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 finals.
Photo: AFP