Red card, 2 penalties cause Vietnam team to lose to Iraq
Appearing at the press conference after the match, coach Philippe Troussier said: "The defeat is an unfortunate result, but I am satisfied with what the players showed against the Iraqi team today.
The Vietnamese team was eliminated, but I still asked the players to play their best, for the country and consider this as a preparation for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in March. They did it, playing according to the philosophy the whole team pursued, confident and keeping their spirits up until the last minute.
The Vietnamese team played very proactively in the first half. In the second half, it was much more difficult for us to play because we were short of players, but we still maintained our organization and discipline in defense. In addition, the players were always proactive in finding and exploiting even the smallest opportunities to score more goals."
Coach Troussier was satisfied with what his students showed (Photo: AP).
The French strategist analyzed the match in more detail: "From the beginning we knew this would be a difficult match. In theory, Iraq is stronger than us. According to the plan, I also wanted to cause them a lot of difficulties, but unfortunately the result was not as expected.
Although our chances of advancing were over, our players maintained the same spirit as when we played against Indonesia. We scored two goals and defended continuously for an hour with only 10 men on the field.
The players really prepared very seriously for this match. Unfortunately, we lost in the last minutes, when the Vietnamese team had to pay the price for their mistakes.
In this tournament, I think the whole team was unlucky when playing against Japan and Iraq. This was a difficult group. But I think the Vietnamese team left the tournament with a good image, a positive image."
Coach Troussier affirmed that the Vietnamese team left a good image at the 2023 Asian Cup (Photo: AP).
"Regarding Van Khang's red card, both players jumped up. He didn't intentionally commit a foul, he just tried to fight for the ball. But the referee gave the red card, so the whole team had to accept it.
I think the Vietnamese team played well before, but the red card somewhat affected the players. When playing with one less player, it will be difficult for us to implement what we want. That is the reason for the negative result in today's match," Coach Troussier said about Khuat Van Khang's red card.
The Vietnamese team faced Iraq in the final round of Group D of the 2023 Asian Cup at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium (Doha, Qatar) with great determination. An Iraqi defender scored an own goal early in the match, but VAR technology disallowed the goal because Khuat Van Khang was offside.
Van Khang's red card puts the Vietnamese team at a disadvantage against Iraq (Photo: AP).
The Vietnamese team's efforts were realized in the 42nd minute with a delicate finish by Bui Hoang Viet Anh. However, coach Troussier's team fell into a difficult situation when Khuat Van Khang received a second yellow card and had to leave the field.
At the beginning of the second half, Sulaka headed home an equalizer for Iraq, before Hussein increased the score to 2-1 in the 73rd minute. The West Asian representative continued to press the field and they had a chance to score a third goal, but Hussein himself missed a penalty kick in the 83rd minute.
Despite playing with one less player, the Vietnamese team still played tight defense and counterattacked effectively. We unexpectedly equalized 2-2 after Quang Hai's cross-angle shot in the 90th minute. However, in the 90+12th minute, the Vietnamese team conceded a penalty and Hussein completed his double, sealing a 3-2 victory for Iraq.
At the end of Group D of the 2023 Asian Cup, the Vietnamese team lost all 3 matches and ranked last in the group. In the match at the same time, Japan defeated Indonesia 3-1. Iraq and Japan officially won tickets to the round of 16 while Indonesia (3 points) is at risk of being eliminated.
Watch Live & Complete Asian Cup 2023 on FPT Play, at: https://fptplay.vn/
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