Vietnam's national futsal team head coach Diego Giustozzi in the post-match press conference on April 24. (Photo: VFF)Despite the heartbreaking nature of the defeat, Vietnam’s nationalfutsal team head coach and former World Cup winner Diego Giustozzi is stillconfident of his team's chances to qualify for the next round.
"I am happy with the players' performance. The team did wellin defence, and controlled the game well, created more advantages than in thefirst half," said the 2016 FIFA Futsal World Cup winning coach.
“If the chances had been capitalised, the score would have been different.Uzbekistan switched to a five-man attack later but we were still controllingthe situation."
The coach further said it was unfortunate that the team concededtwice in the final minutes from set pieces, but added that his team did thebest they could.
"I want the players to know that the team played well againstUzbekistan. The opponent is a World Cup regular. We tried our best andfulfilled our game plan well. If we continue to play like today, World Cupqualification chances are bright," said the Argentinian.
In the match on April 24, Vietnam surprisingly opened the scoring inthe 17th minute through Nguyen Thinh Phat, but two late goals from ElbekTukinov and Juraev Sunatulla took Uzbekistan into the semis.
The four semifinalists of the tournament, namely Uzbekistan,Thailand, Tajikistan and Iran, have all qualified for the 2024 FIFA FutsalWorld Cup. However, as Uzbekistan have already qualified as the hosts, Asia'sfifth spot in the World Cup will be determined by a playoff bracket, featuringthe quarterfinal losers Vietnam, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan and Iraq.
"The tournament is not over and we have many objectivesahead. The most important thing right now is to recover, both physically andemotionally, for the upcoming playoff game," said Giustozzi.
Vietnam will face Kyrgyzstan, who lost 1-6 to Iran in thequarters, in the first round on April 26./.
VNA
