Vietnam - Qatar: Confidently overcome challenges
* Vietnam - Qatar: 9pm today, on MetaSports.
Coach Hoang Anh Tuan highly appreciates the opponent, he thinks that Vietnamese football is still one level below Qatar. However, the two teams entered today's match with different attitudes, because Vietnam had just defeated Australia, and Qatar lost to Iran in the first round. Therefore, Vietnamese players are mentally superior, while the opponent is more or less stressed when entering the match with the pressure to win at all costs.
The current situation of the two teams will be an opportunity for Vietnam to take advantage of their strong defensive and counter-attacking style. Mr. Tuan revealed that he had watched Qatar play live and carefully studied the video, realizing that the opponent had strengths but also weaknesses to exploit. Maybe Vietnam won't be as easy to score as early as the way they've conceded Australia from the sixth minute. Qatar will also be wary when it realizes that Vietnam is playing dangerously. But the fulcrum of Vietnam is a disciplined defense, so that from there, the upper line confidently chooses many attacking options.
Qatar has called up six players from Europe for the occasion, but their performance against Iran was disappointing. The Iranian strikers are not delicate and often lose the rhythm and lose the ball. Striker Ahmed Al Rawi is the most dangerous player on the Qatar side, but he has a penchant for individual play on the left wing. If the Vietnamese defense blocks this 2004-born player, the threat to goalkeeper Cao Van Binh's goal will be significantly reduced.
Meanwhile, the fact that the defeat to Iran shows that the Qatar defense - with the trio of Ahmed Riad - Mohammed Mansour - Al-Hashmi Al-Hussain - turns slowly and lacks speed. Those are the points that Vietnam focuses on exploiting with the speed of Quoc Viet or the ingenuity of Van Khang and Van Truong.
Qatar made an impressive qualification, defeating Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Bahrain. They scored 14 goals and only conceded one. Before the finals in Uzbekistan, coach Inaki Abadia's army played five friendly matches and lost two to Syria and then Saudi Arabia.
Also during the training period for the finals, Vietnam once won Saudi Arabia 2-1. But according to coach Hoang Anh Tuan, football is not bridging so his students can be subjective when playing Qatar. He asked the students to forget the victories against Australia and Saudi Arabia to focus today. If you win, the opportunity to continue to the quarterfinals will be open to Vietnam.
