Japan dominated against a defensive Myanmar side on Matchday One, but showed their true capability in the second half to score four times. 

Vietnam also adopted a defensive approach against Korea Republic and while Japan are favourites, head coach Futoshi Ikeda said he wants his team to reproduce their Matchday One second half performance against their Southeast Asian opponents on Monday.

“We need to maintain our players’ condition and analyse our performance, especially the combination of our passes,” said Ikeda.  

“We created a lot of opportunities to score, but couldn’t find the back of the net. So we need to improve on that against Vietnam.” 

COVID-19 issues and early game jitters saw Vietnam conceding two early goals against the Koreans, but Mai Duc Chung’s charges displayed a much improved performance in the second half. 

Vietnam were unable to train together for over 10 days due to COVID-19 cases in the team.

The bulk of the squad, however, is back and fans can expect Vietnam to bring the challenge to the reigning champions at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex on Monday. 

“I’m happy because we still have more time to prepare for Japan,” said Mai. 

“My players will also have more time to recover from COVID, and we will then begin our preparation. 

“Japan is a high-level team and skilful. I think they’re a strong opponent, but we will try our best in the match.”

VIETNAM v JAPAN
Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex
Kick-off: 19:30 (UTC+5:30)