Coach Mai Duc Chung: 'Vietnam team remained unshaken despite conceding an equalizer'

Ngan Thi Van Su shone with a brace, helping the Vietnam women's team defeat India 2-1 in their 2026 Asian Cup opener. After the match, Coach Mai Duc Chung praised his players' competitive spirit.

At the post-match press conference, Coach Mai Duc Chung stated: "This was a match between two evenly matched teams. We were somewhat luckier to secure the victory.

This result will be a significant motivation for the Vietnam women's team on the road ahead. Our disadvantage was that after the Lunar New Year break, the players mainly trained without many competitive matches, so the match sharpness in the opening game wasn't truly optimal".

Reviewing the match, Coach Mai Duc Chung acknowledged: "Even though India equalized, the whole team was not shaken. The cheers and encouragement from Vietnamese fans in the stands boosted the players' morale to continue striving for the next goal.

I believe the Vietnam team controlled the ball better than India. The issue was simply that we didn't capitalize on more opportunities to score additional goals".

According to Coach Mai Duc Chung, the Indian team mainly used long balls instead of short combinations, and the Vietnamese players were prepared to neutralize this style of play.

"The team played confidently and boldly, and I believe my players would have scored more. In fact, in stoppage time, the Vietnam women's team scored the decisive goal for a 2-1 victory," Mr. Chung affirmed.

Meanwhile, in a post-match 'hot' interview, midfielder Ngan Thi Van Su, who scored the brace that earned three points for the Vietnam women's team, said: "The whole team played with over 200% effort. The coaching staff devised a suitable game plan for us to achieve a good result. When the unfortunate goal was conceded, we encouraged each other that there was still time and we needed to strive even harder".

The player born in 2001 also affirmed that the whole team will seriously learn from the conceded goal situation to improve further in upcoming matches, determined to achieve the tournament's set objectives.

With the 2-1 victory over India, the Vietnam women's team holds second place in Group C and has ample opportunity to advance to the knockout stage.

In the second round, the Vietnam women's team will face Chinese Taipei at 12:00 on March 7 (Vietnam time). Meanwhile, the India women's team will play Japan at 18:00 on the same day.

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