AFC U-23 Championship Qualifiers: Group I - Timor-Leste 0-0 Korea Republic / Macau 1-8 Vietnam

Korea made eight changes to their starting lineup from the 11 who started in the 10-0 win over Macau on Matchday One, with the obvious intention of resting their key players for the final group match against hosts Vietnam on Sunday. 

Despite the changes, Korea still controlled possession and had several early looks at the Timor-Leste goal.

Timor-Leste, however, played with a steely resolve in defence and Korea found it hard to break through.

That led to Korea spraying the Timor-Leste goalmouth with long range efforts and crosses aimed at Park Seong-bu and Cho Young-wook but a goal was not forthcoming. 

It was more of the same in the second half and except for Cho's 78th minute effort sailing just over the crossbar, Timor-Leste goalkeeper Fagio was rarely troubled.

As the final whistle approached, Korea threw everything forward but Timor-Leste held on to register what is surely one of the surprise results of the qualifiers.

Korea Republic coach Jeong Jeong-yong
"That’s football, sometimes you play well, sometimes you do not. We had many chances to score, but my players missed them all. Timor-Leste also had a very good and deep defensive line and good combination today, congratulations to them. Of course this result is not good for us before the last game against Vietnam. But I just can say that our players must train hard and have a good preparation for the last game."

Timor-Leste coach Kim Shin-hwan
"Yes, it’s really a big surprise result because Korea is a very strong team in Asia. They had many tall and good players, they used the long ball and my players are short, so I think that my team is lucky today. I agree that our trip in Korea before the tournament has proved very useful, and we continued to train hard after that with the same method. I think that one of the main reasons we got one point today is our players' high spirit. They showed very good motivation in this game."

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