Tashkent: Coach Victor Hermans is confident Thailand will maintain their strong recent record against Vietnam in Sunday’s third place playoff at the AFC Futsal Championship.
Thailand already have two runners-up and three third-placed finishes to their name at the AFC Futsal Championship, and Hermans’ side will look to bounce back from Friday’s semi-final defeat by Uzbekistan having already secured qualification for September’s FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Thailand won Group C with a 100% record, which included a 3-1 win over Vietnam, before beating Australia 6-1 in the quarter-finals, but were eventually edged out by Uzbekistan 3-1 on penalties following a 2-2 draw after extra-time.
“A lot of people don’t know, but we have our best players all sitting back injured in Bangkok and our preparation was disrupted when we couldn’t get access to our best players, so this is a huge achievement for Thailand,” said Hermans.
“Against Vietnam we’ve played them five times and won five times, so we should be confident.”
In contrast, Vietnam had never previously progressed past the quarter-finals before beating defending champions Japan on penalties in the last eight having finished second behind Thailand in Group C.
But having secured a maiden appearance at the FIFA Futsal World Cup, Vietnam lost Friday’s semi-final 13-1 to Iran.
“We just need to re-group now and need to focus on our preparation for this match,” said Vietnam coach Bruno Formoso, who guided Vietnam to the quarter-finals on home soil in 2014.
In the group stage, Vietnam had looked to have claimed a point against Thailand following earlier wins over Chinese Taipei and Tajikistan as Vu Xuan Du equalised with two minutes remaining only for Formoso’ side to concede twice in the last minute.
“Against Thailand it was a really heavy loss with us losing in the last minute of that match, and since then we’ve been working really hard to get success,” added Formoso.
Photo: AFC
Source: the-afc.com