Blue Tigers suffer 0-3 loss to Vietnam in friendly

HO CHI MINH CITY, Sep 27: India suffered a 0-3 thrashing at the hands of a higher-ranked Vietnam in the second and final match of the Hung Thinh Friendly Football Tournament here, on Tuesday.
It was a reality check for the 104th ranked Indians after three convincing wins in June in the Asian Cup qualifiers and a 1-1 draw against Singapore in this tournament on Saturday as they were literally outplayed by the 97th ranked Vietnam in the second half.
Phan Van Duc (10th), Nguyen Van Toan (49th) and Nguyen Van Quyet (70th) scored for Vietnam to no reply from the Indians whose defenders had a mediocre outing, especially in the second half.
The Indians, however, were on equal terms with their opponents in the first half only to be blown away in the second session.
Vietnam won the tournament with two wins from as many matches.
They had also thrashed Singapore 4-0 in their opening match.
India and Vietnam last met in 2010 in an international friendly in Pune with the Blue Tigers running out 3-1 winners with Chhetri scoring a hat-trick.
The home side did not take long to surge ahead with Phan Van Duc finding the target in the 10th minute.
Vietnam pressed hard just as they came out after resumption and they had a couple of shots at the Indian goal.
Vietnam went on the offensive but India also gradually came to their own and they had two clear scoring chances in the first half, courtesy fine assists from Akash Mishra who was superb on the left channel.
The second goal from Vietnam came four minutes after resumption as Nguyen Van Toan won an aerial duel with Anwar Ali and then beat Gurpreet with a shot.
By the 65th minute, head coach Igor Stimac substituted Chhetri, Udanta Singh, Chinglensana with Brandon Fernandes, Liston Colaco and Roshan Singh but Vietnam scored their third five minutes later.
Van Quyet was gifted the ball from a headed clearance inside the Indian box and he curled it past Gurpreet to punish the visitors for yet another defensive sloppiness. (PTI)