President of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Salman Al Khalifa extended a congratulatory message to Standing Vice President of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF), Tran Quoc Tuan, right after Vietnam achieved a historic 1-0 win over Australia at the ongoing AFC U23 Championship 2018 in Jiangshu, China.

Quang Hai reacts after scoring a solitary goal for Vietnam.

In his message, Al Khalifa said that he was very proud of the amazing results produced by Vietnam.

He hailed the triumph as a tremendous accomplishment for Vietnamese football, whilst wishing Vietnamese football greater success in the future.

This is the second time in a row that Vietnam has been present in the continental playground for U23 teams, but the first time that the squad has tasted the flavour of victory.

Speaking after the match, Vietnam head coach, Park Hang-seo, stated he would like to dedicate the victory to all the Vietnamese people.

“We always believed we could win the game. We don’t know in advance what the result will be, but we prepared to win. Every team has good points and of course today, we were lucky,” he said.

Despite the loss, Australia coach, Ante Milicic, extended his congratulations to Vietnam on their fantastic victory.

He admitted that his team did not play well in the second half despite struggling to create some clear-cut chances.

Vietnam will play Syria in their last Group D match on January 17, while Australia face a crunch encounter against the group leaders, Republic of Korea. A victory will ensure the Park Hang-seo side’s a place in the quaterfinals of the competition.

Nhan Dan