Myanmar dominated ball possession in the opening minutes, deploying attacks along the touch line and produced crosses into Vietnam’s goal box. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese team chose to play slowly waiting for fast counterattacks.
Despite their slow start, Vietnam enjoyed the first opportunity of the match as favourite striker Cong Phuong curled a low shot narrowly wide from a distance of 25 metres after 20 minutes.
Four minutes after Phuong’s unsuccessful attempt, Myanmar deployed a fast counterattack in the right wing, in which Lwin Moe Aung fired a long-range strike that was not powerful enough to cause difficulty for Vietnamese keeper Van Lam.
The pace of the match was sped up later, with opportunities constantly created by the Vietnamese side.
Keeper Zin Hte rescue Myanmar a number of times. (Photo: vnexpress.net)
Vietnam came close to opening the scoring in the 36th minute as Van Duc’s volley hit the right post, before Myanmar keeper Zin Hte rescued the home side by brilliantly blocking a left-footed shot by Quang Hai from close range one minute later.
After the break, both teams proactively intensified their attacks seeking to break the deadlock. Myanmar tested keeper Van Lam with a powerful strike from 20 metres in the 52th minute; however, Vietnam gave an immediate answer with two constant finishes by Van Duc and Cong Phuong that were unfortunately saved by Zin Hte.
Following an array of opportunities missed by the “yellow stars”, coach Park Hang-seo decided to put Van Toan on to the field in the hope of creating breakthroughs.
Shortly after his appearance, the 22-year-old forward proved his value by successfully finding the back of the net with a rebound, which, however, was denied by referee Khamis Al-Marri.
With time running out, both sides continued to push hard for an opener, but failed to convert any of the created opportunities.
The 0-0 score remained unchanged until the final whistle, making Vietnam the only team to keep a clean sheet after the first three group matches.
Vietnam currently stand second in Group A, sharing the same seven points and a goal difference of +5 with Myanmar. The last group match against underdogs Cambodia on November 24 will be a good chance for Park Hang-seo’s side to overthrow Myanmar and advance to the semifinals as the group leaders, as next up for Myanmar is a crunch encounter against heavyweights Malaysia.
