Martin Lo of Hai Phong FC celebrates his opening goal in the match between Hai Phong and Hougang United at the AFC Cup's Group H on December 14 in Hai Phong city. (Photo: VFF) Three players of HaiPhong scored goals, while Hougang's Iryan Fandi added his name on thescoreboard with an own goal near the end of the match.
"Although the windoes not mean much to our AFC Cup journey as we are stopped, my players ran agood match until the end. I am pleased with their spirit and performance,"said coach Chu Dinh Nghiem of Hai Phong at the post-match conference.
Due to some unexpectedabsences, Nghiem gave playing opportunities to some long-time substitutes andall of them made their coach happy.
“I have places for(former national midfielder) Xuan Truong and (oversea Vietnamese) MarinLo. I wanted them to catch the rhythm of game. They put in good performancesand if they could maintain that peak they might play more regularly," saidNghiem.
Vietnamese side HaiPhong controlled the game from the beginning and had plenty of chances toopen the score, but both local and foreign players failed.
Lo finally opened thescoring at the 26th minute. His skill was on show from first to last touchafter he received the ball from Ho Minh Di, controlling it, then knocking itpast a defender before cheekily placing it past the keeper to make it1-0.
Di turned fromcreator to scorer, with Brazilian Lucao dispossessing Kazuma Takayama whoreceived a rather difficult pass from his keeper, squaring up Di whoslotted home to double the score.
The third goal came inepic fashion, with a mix up in Singaporean Hougang United’s defence as Le ManhDung threaded the ball through their lines causing confusion as to whethersubstitute Joseph Mpande was offside or not, but the Ugandan took advantage andchipped the keeper who stood helplessly as the score turned to 3-0.
Fandi’s nod wasattempting to head it back to his keeper to hold, but he put a little toomuch power on it, with Zaiful Abdullah’s positioning betraying him, at the 80thminute.
Hai Phong end their AFCCup campaign in second place, while Hougang United sit at the bottom of thegroup having lost all but one of their games.
"We well delivered our team's tactics in this match. The winwill be a motivation for us in the upcoming matches in the V.League," saidmidfielder Lo, the MVP of the match.
Meanwhile coach Marko Kraljevic of Hougang United said Hai Phongdeserved the win. Hougang made mistakes and players did not have their bestfitness and spirit near the end of the game.
Hougang would review their players and seek new members to preparefor the new season next year.
In other match of the group, PSM Makassar of Indonesia produced aclinical performance beating Sabah FC 3-1 at Likas Stadium.
Despite the defeat, Sabah had already qualified for the nextstage as the group leader, while Makassar stayed at third position and were outof the tournament./.
VNA
