Defeating the former Asian champion, the Vietnamese beach team has a bright chance to enter the quarterfinals.

The 2025 Asian Beach Soccer Championship is taking place in the coastal city of Pattaya (Thailand). This afternoon (March 23), the Vietnamese beach soccer team will meet Bahrain - the former Asian beach champion. The two teams started this match quite cautiously.

Vietnam beach soccer team has its first victory in the history of the Asian Beach Soccer Championship

Photo: VFF

It was not until the second half that the goals came in droves. The Vietnamese team scored two goals in regulation time, by Tran Ngoc Bao and Phan Dat. However, also in regulation time, Bahrain equalized twice, both times by Samoul.

Who will the Vietnam beach team face in the important match?

Tied 2-2 in regular time, the two teams had to play extra time (in beach soccer, each regular time is 20 minutes, each extra time is 5 minutes, not including the time the ball is out of play). In the second minute of the first extra time, Mai Van Manh received a throw-in from Phan Dat, finished and scored, helping the Vietnamese team lead 3-2.

Just a few seconds later, Phan Dat was the one who finished the match, scoring the winning goal 4-2 for the Vietnamese beach soccer team. This was the first victory of our country's beach soccer team at the Asian Championship, in the history of participating in this tournament.

According to the rules of beach soccer, each match won in regular time, the winning team will get 3 points. If the match wins in extra time, the winning team will get 2 points. If the match wins in penalty shootout, the winning team will get 1 point. The losing team will get no points. There are no draws in this sport.

Currently, the Vietnamese beach soccer team has 2 points after 1 win (in extra time against Bahrain) and 1 loss (1-7 against Oman). Coach Mai Van Duc's team is ranked 3rd in Group D, 1 point behind the 3rd team in the group, Oman, and 2 points behind the top team, Bahrain.

In the final match of the group stage, the Vietnamese beach soccer team will meet Malaysia on March 25. The top two teams in each group (there are a total of 4 groups) will qualify for the quarter-finals.