Recently, when interviewed on the FIFA homepage, Portuguese women's team coach Francisco Neto gave a detailed assessment of the teams in Group E of the 2023 Women's World Cup, including the Vietnamese women's team.
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| Vietnam women's team received the award for the gold medal at the 32nd SEA Games. (Source: VFF) |
Coach Francisco Neto is credited with helping the Portuguese women's team reach their first ever Women's World Cup after passing the intercontinental play-off round.
This is a formidable opponent for the Vietnamese women's team, currently ranked 21st on the FIFA rankings (11 places higher than the Vietnamese women's team).
The Portugal women's team coach said: "Of the three teams in this group, I know the Netherlands well. We played them in the European Championship last year. It was a very exciting match (the Netherlands won 3-2).
The Netherlands are also the runners-up of the 2019 Women's World Cup. Therefore, the match against this opponent will be extremely difficult.
They have similar preparation to Portugal. Most of the Dutch players are playing in Europe. The European Championships have just ended and the Dutch have the same preparation conditions as us.
Meanwhile, the Vietnamese women's team has the advantage of having a long training period before the tournament. The US Women's Soccer Championship is still taking place, so the players have gotten used to the pace of the game.
I rate the US and the Netherlands as strong candidates for the ticket to the next round in this group. They play with ball control and dominate their opponents. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese women's team plays counter-attacking and transitions very well.
"In any case, Portugal need to believe in themselves. If we depend on the perspective of other teams, it will be very difficult for us. Portugal need to have its own identity and focus on what we can do."
In general, the Portuguese women's team's squad mainly consists of members from three strong teams: Benfica, Sporting Lisbon and Braga.
Huynh Nhu has experience facing these opponents when playing for Lank FC in the Portuguese women's championship last season.
The Vietnamese women's team has just returned home after a training trip in Germany. During the recent training session, we played quite well in a 1-2 defeat to the German women's team.
After the training trip, coach Mai Duc Chung's team practiced at the Vietnam Youth Football Training Center. On July 5, the whole team left for New Zealand for a 10-day training session and participated in two friendly matches with New Zealand and Spain.
The Vietnamese women's team will play their debut match at the 2023 Women's World Cup against the United States on July 22. This will be followed by matches against Portugal (July 27) and the Netherlands (August 1).
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