Futsal

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam defeated Indonesia 2-1 to reach the semi-finals of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Women’s Futsal Championship 2018 yesterday.

The game was held at Bangkok Arena in Thailand.

Việt Nam entered the game feeling comfortable. The two sides were evenly matched in terms of talent, however, the Vietnamese side dominated the game from the referee’s first whistle.

In the 13th minute, Việt Nam had the opener as Võ Thị Thùy Trinh’s wonderful back heel opened up the Indonesian defence and allowed Biện Thị Hằng to set up Bùi Thị Trang, who scooped the ball in for 1-0.

After the break, Indonesia fought back strongly to level the score.

After just five minutes in the second half, Febriana managed an equalizer for Indonesia.

With just over three minutes remaining, Nguyễn Thị Huế made no mistake from just inside the penalty area to fix the score at 2-1 in favour of Việt Nam.

After that, Indonesia pressed but failed to even the scores in the dying minutes.

Earlier, Việt Nam achieved three wins to top Group B and reach the quarter-finals. While Indonesia were the runners-up of Group A.

At the Southeast Asian Games last year, Việt Nam bested Indonesia 2-1 to take the silver medal, while Indonesia received bronze. Today, Việt Nam will meet arch rival Iran, who beat China 4-2 in the quarter-final, in the semi-final. Thailand will face Japan in the other semi-final match.

“Before the game I studied our opponents very thoroughly and I knew that their first set (of four players) were very strong so we tried to reduce their power. I congratulate my players because they played very bravely and they played with tactical discipline," said Vietnamese coach Trần Quốc Tuấn after the match on the website the-afc.com.

While Indonesia coach, Kensuke Takahashi said it was a very tight game.

“We’re very sad about this result. I told the players about Việt Nam’s style of play and their counter-attack. I think the players were not quite able to apply the instructions regarding the counter-attack. Overall, we drew against Thailand and we aimed for a further win but unfortunately we lost. I believe overall it has been a positive performance. This is our first AFC competition and I think it’s a good experience for the players," said Kensuke. — VNS