Vietnamese women's football team defeats Nepali one 2-1 on April 8. (Photo: VFF)Hanoi (VNA) — In an exhilarating match at DasarathStadium, Vietnam secured their place in the second Olympic women's footballqualifier after defeating Nepal 2-1 on April 8.
Vietnam and Nepal were the only teams left in Group C afterPalestine and Afghanistan withdrew from the competition. The upperdogged Vietnamquickly took control of the game and dominated Nepal from the very start.
Phạm Hai Yen wasted no time in opening the scoring just fiveminutes into the game with a close tap-in from a Nguyan Thi My Anh delivery.
A minute later, Thu Thao dashed down the right wing and providedan excellent cross for Yen, who made no mistake and scored her second goal ofthe match.
Despite conceding two early goals, Nepal regrouped and fiercelyresisted Vietnam's attempts to score for the rest of the first half.
In thesecond half, Vietnam's coach Mai Đức Chung gave opportunities to his youngplayers to try and score more goals, but they could not capitalise on theirchances.
Nepal nearly had a goal in the 67th minute when Dipa Shahi lashedthe ball towards the net but was denied by the post.
After two matches, Vietnam won 7-1 on aggregate and will nowadvance to the second Olympic women's football qualifier.
“Nepal placed second in the South Asian region, so we played thegames cautiously," said Chung at the post-match conference. "We arehappy with the second win and qualify for the second round."
The Vietnamese team isone of the seven that qualified for the second round through matches. Fiveother teams, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Japan, Australia, Republicof Korea, and China, were given byes to this round.
They will be dividedinto three groups and compete in a round-robin format competition from October23-31. Three top teams and one best second-placed squad will enter thethird round./.
