Vietnam book an early berth at AFC U19 Championship finals

Tien Anh opened the scoring for Vietnam in the 22^nd minute following an accurate strike from outside the box.

Only ten minutes later, Coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team gained further advantage, as Hong Son's attempt struck the post before hitting the back of the net.

After the break, the home team made a determined effort by seeking to equalise the score.

Chin Wen-yen managed to reduce the gap by 1-2 for Chinese Taipei three minutes from the hour mark, but no further goals were scored for either side during the remainder of the match, which meant a 2-1 triumph for Vietnam.

Earlier on November 4, Vietnam made light work of Macau (China) with an easy 2-0 win in their opening group matchup.

Two consecutive victories helped Vietnam to reign on top of the Group H rankings with six points, ahead of Chinese Taipei and Macau (China) with three each.

Despite the remaining November 8 match against Laos, the Hoang Anh Tuan side has surely qualified for the final competition in Indonesia next year as the Group H leaders, thanks to their outstanding head-to-head results against both Chinese Taipei and Macau.

The 2018 AFC U19 Championship qualification features the participation of 43 teams in three groups of five and seven groups of four.

A round robin format is applied to the group stage, with the ten group winners and the five best runners-up qualifying for the final tournament. If the final tournament hosts, Indonesia, win their group or are among the five best runners-up, the sixth best runner-up will also qualify for the final tournament.

At the 2016 AFC U19 Championship, Vietnam stopped in the semifinal round after losing 0-3 to Japan who were then crowned as the the overall champions. This is also the best performance that Vietnam has recorded at this arena so far.

(Source: NDO)