Hanoi: An entertaining 5-4 victory for Home United over Than Quang Ninh in Hanoi on Wednesday sent the Singapore side back to the summit of 2017 AFC Cup Group H.
Having been 2-0 up in the early stages, the visitors allowed their advantage to slip away before half-time. However, a late rally saw a comfortable victory wrapped up ahead of what will be a decisive match with Than Quang Ninh of Vietnam.
On this occasion, the victory owed much to the striking ability of Croatian forward Stipe Plazibat whose four-goal haul devastated the Than Quang Ninh resistance.
Clinical finishing makes the difference
As is to be expected of any match which ends 5-4, there were plenty of shots on goal on the night, with Home United leading 18-12 in terms of efforts at goal.
With Than Quang Ninh having enjoyed 65.9 percent of the possession, the statistics show clearly the quality of Home United to create and take chances with limited time on the ball.
Plazibat was crucial to that effort, converting four of his six attempts at goal over the course of the ninety minutes—a shots/goal gatio of 66.6 percent.
Indeed, of his six efforts just one was registered off-target showing the high quality of his finishing on this occasion. Without Plazibat’s clinical performance, it could have been a very different game.
Plazibat’s all-round contribution
What was impressive about Plazibat’s showing was that he was not a typical striker in the sense of waiting in attacking areas for the ball to arrive.
As the map above shows, the Croatian was active in all areas of the pitch for his side and contributed greatly to the defensive effort as Than Quang Ninh dominated possession.
While he misplaced a number of passes, coming in with just a 61.8 percent completion figure, it was merely a sign of Plazibat’s intent to play a fast, direct attacking game. Indeed, the majority of passes failing to find their target were attempts to free strike partner Amiruldin Asyraf with a swiftly struck through-ball.
Of Home United’s players, only central midfielder Izzdin Shafiq played more passes overall (39) than Plazibat (34).
This positive approach and drive to get into the area were key to chances coming his way, which once delivered were dispatched with conviction.
Defensive openness Than Quang Ninh’s downfall
Hosts Than Quang Ninh attempted to control the game throughout, as shown by their high possession statistics. However, in doing so they played into the hands of Home United’s counter-attacking game.
As shown by the average position diagram above, the Vietnamese side built play by pushing their centre-backs wide and attempting to play out from the back. It worked in that they kept the ball well for long periods.
The downside, though, is that when Home United were able to put together fast attacking moves they found defensive cover at a minimum—as shown by the ease of Plazibat’s third and fourth strikes of the night when the visitors overloaded the minimal defensive cover.
There was little Than Quang Ninh could do about Khairul Nizam’s stunning opener, but from that point on the Vietnamese side’s attacking intent contributed to their downfall.
Plazibat and his colleagues simply waited for their moments to strike.
Photo: Lagardère Sports
Source: the-afc.com