Park Hang-seo’s Vietnamese side barely broke a sweat as they thrashed Brunei 6-0 in their Group K opener of the 2020 AFC U23 Championship qualifiers at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on March 22 to secure top place in the group on goal difference.

Forward Ha Duc Chinh opens the scoring for Vietnam U23s.

The reigning Asian runners-up cruised to a three-goal lead in the first half thanks to Duc Chinh, Thanh Chung and Thanh Binh before Viet Hung, Tan Sinh and Quang Hai scored three additional goals later to seal a convincing five-star victory for Vietnam U23s.

It took only 10 minutes for Park’s troops to go ahead as Duc Chinh headed home a goal-line cross from Thanh Thinh on the left wing for their opening goal.

The SHB Da Nang foward then missed two consecutive chances to double Vietnam’s advantage, firing a close-range shot narrowly wide in the 21st minute and skewing a volley that hit the woodwork three minutes later.

However, the host team had to wait only two more minutes to make it 2-0. The Brunei keeper brilliantly parried a header by Duc Chinh but could not stop a diving shot by Thanh Chung on the rebound.

In the following minutes, Vietnam continued to dominate ball possession and constantly put the Brunei goal in danger.

On the stroke of half-time, Thanh Binh blasted an accurate volley and buried the ball in the left corner of the net to hand Park’s side a three-goal lead into the interval.

After the break, midfielder Nguyen Quang Hai, the hero of the Vietnamese team at the 2018 AFC U23 Championship in Changzhou, China, was put onto the field, and he immediately proved his value with an assist for Viet Hung to score Vietnam’s fourth goal on the hour mark.

The Hanoi FC player continued to leave deep imprints in the remaining two goals of the Vietnamese squad, earning a penalty in the 77th minute that was successfully converted by Tan Sinh and directly getting on the scoresheet with another penalty converter in stoppage time.

The commanding 6-0 triumph helped Vietnam U23s settle for top spot in Group K with a better goal difference than Thailand, who recorded a 4-0 win against Indonesia earlier on the same day.

Nhan Dan