Vietnam claim 4-0 victory over Indonesia at World Cup qualifiers and secured their top position of group G.
The national team has 78 percent chance of World Cup qualifiers advance, according to football statistics site We Global
All four goals were scored in the second half by Nguyen Tien Linh, Nguyen Quang Hai, Nguyen Cong Phuong, and Vu Van Thanh, VNExpress reported.
Vietnam had many chances in the first half, having a total of eight corners against Indonesia’s none, but failed to turn them into goals.
With Monday’s victory, Vietnam now have 14 points and remain the best team of group G in the World Cup Asian qualifiers.
They have two more games in the second round against Malaysia on June 11 and UAE on June 15, from which they will need seven points to advance to the third and final round of the qualifiers.
Key midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai received a yellow card and will be absent in the next game, which coach Park Hang-seo said will be a disadvantange to Vietnam’s strategy.
“But we have prepared different scenarios,” he said. “We have prepared two scenarios for each position and we can make changes when needed.”
According to football statistics site We Global, Vietnam’s chance of advancing in the World Cup qualifiers has increased by 4 percent after Thursday matches.
We Global ran a simulation of remaining matches in this second World Cup qualifying round and combined results of previous games. It concluded Vietnam had a 77.88 percent chance of entering the final qualifying round. The team’s chance is only lower than Japan, Australia, Syria, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iraq and Lebanon. Of these, Japan are the only team to have already secured a place in the final qualification round.
Other group G teams like UAE have a 65.72 percent, Thailand a 6.40 percent and Malaysia a 1.36 percent chance of advance. Indonesia have already lost its chance despite earning the first point against Thailand from a 2-2 draw Thursday.
Vietnam’s chance stood at 74.20 percent before the matches played Thursday.
The Golden Dragons are still at the top of the group with 11 points. UAE, Thailand and Malaysia are behind with nine points each, but only Vietnam and the UAE have three matches left, while the other two only got two, according to VNExpress.