AFC Women's Olympic Qualifiers: India vs Vietnam Live Updates

Thomas Dennerby had time and again stressed on the importance of the matches against Vietnam and Uzbekistan in the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifiers Round 2. 

“These are the teams that are on more equal footing with us, and we have to try and win both matches,” he had said after the Japan defeat.

The first of those challenges has arrived. Vietnam await the Blue Tigresses on Sunday, October 29, 2023, at the Lokomotiv Stadium in Tashkent at 15:30 IST. It’s a do-or-die situation for both sides. Like India, Vietnam also went down in their opening match on Thursday – a 0-1 loss to hosts Uzbekistan at the Bunyodkor Stadium. A win for either side will keep their Paris 2024 hopes alive, while a draw might be suicidal for both.

Vietnamese women’s football has soared to new heights in the recent past. They qualified for the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time after winning the play-offs at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup in India last year. The Mai Đức Chung-coached side also won their fourth straight Southeast Asian Games gold medal a few weeks before their World Cup sojourn in Australia and New Zealand. However, at the expanded 32-team competition, Vietnam lost all three matches (against the USA, Portugal and Netherlands) without scoring a goal.

“I think tomorrow’s game is going to be very similar to the ones at the Asian Games. I think the three teams apart from Japan here are quite even. Vietnam lost 0-1 to Uzbekistan. Hopefully, we have the best day tomorrow and on Wednesday (against Uzbekistan) as well.”

Playing against Japan in the first match was never going to be easy. Neither is picking yourselves up from the loss and preparing for the next game, but the Blue Tigresses have now left it behind and only have three points on their mind. “Of course, it was a little bit tough after the loss against Japan. We let a couple of goals too many. But we have to leave that now and look forward to tomorrow. We came here with the aim of being the runner-up and to do that, we definitely need to win.”