Football

Việt Nam Coal and Minerals players celebrate their goal in the 2-0 win over HCM City at the National Women's Football Cup on February 21 in Hà Nội. Photo of VFF

HÀ NỘI -- Việt Nam Coal and Minerals eliminated defending champion HCM City from repeating as champs with a 2-0 victory in a third round match of the National Women's Football Cup on February 21 in Hà Nội.

As it was a key game that decided the second team to advance to the semi-final round, both two sides started slowly and cautiously.

Facing the defending champions with sharp goal hunters, Coal and Minerals chose to play defence.

HCM City, after a dozen minutes testing its rivals, opened attacks but failed to find the Coal and Minerals' back of the net. At the same time, its defenders made deadly mistakes.

At the 18th minute, Thanh Mai's straight shot hit a defender of HCM City and bounced back. Midfielder Nguyễn Thị Vạn ran in the box to shoot the ball and easily opened the scoring.

Coach Đoàn Thị Kim Chi pushed her players to speed up and made several changes to strengthen her front line. But none of their attempts were converted into a goal.

Meanwhile, her defenders were also having a bad day, failing to stop Vạn from passing smart balls to her teammates in the box. At the 72nd minute, Thuỳ Dung finally took the ball and her close-range finish made it 2-0 for Coal and Minerals.

With three teams having six points, Coal and Minerals jumped to top place of Group A due to better goal difference. Thái Nguyên T&T is second.

In the last-four round, Coal and Minerals will play Phong Phú Hà Nam, Group B's second-place team, at the Việt Nam Youth Football Centre on February 24.

Thái Nguyên will meet with Hà Nội 1 at the same time at the PVF Football Training Centre in Hưng Yên Province. 

Meanwhile, HCM City dropped to third and was disqualified from the race to the trophy. They will have a last match for the fifth-place playoff against Group B's bottom team Sơn La on February 23. VNS