Nguyễn Thành Khôi (centre) celebrates his goal in Việt Nam's 3-0 win over Mongolia. Photo nguoiduatin.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam beat Mongolia 3-0 in their opening match at the AFC U19 Championship qualification’s Group J yesterday in HCM City.

Although they played aggressively from the get-go, it took the the hosts 64 minutes to find the back of the Mongolian net.

Nguyễn Thành Khôi opened the score with a straight finish.

It was 10 minutes later that Nguyễn Kim Nhật's slick back-heel effort rebounded off Mongolian midfielder Buyant Munkhbat to make it 2-0 for Việt Nam.

The hosts were moving with speed and confidence, and the Mongolian defence succumbed to the pressure again two minutes later when Gan-Erdene Batmunkh brought down Nhật in the box, which Nguyễn Văn Tùng then duly converted to seal the victory.

“Việt Nam played without any pressure from their rivals. We managed 80 per cent of possession and created many chances,” said Philippe Troussier of the hosts.

“We have a balance between attack and defence although we also met challenges when Mongolia played the counter-attack. But we have prepared for these situations in training,” he said.

In the next match tomorrow, Việt Nam will meet Guam who were defeated 10-0 by Japan.

“Each match will be different. People may hope we could beat Guam 20-0 or 30-0. It is impossible. The key here is three points. Guam played under expectation against Japan and they showed off some weak points. If they do not change, we will cause them many difficulties,” said Troussier who worried a little about Nhật’s injury which needed to be checked again after the match. — VNS