Vietnam play Tajikistan in the AFC U-20 Futsal Championship on Saturday. Vietnam beat Tajikistan 2-1. Photo vff.org.vn

Vietnam controlled the tempo of the game from the opening whistle but it was Tajikistan that scored the opening goal.

Following a quick attack down the right side, Idris Yorov broke the deadlock from a tight angle.

Just two minutes later, Trieu Xuan Linh hit a fierce shot on a first-time volley off a cross long pass from Lam Trung Thuan to level the score.

Vietnam then took the lead in the 16th minute through Ha Duc Ngoc's strike from near the half-line mark.

After the break, Tajikistan fought hard to find an equaliser but Vietnam did well to deal with the pressure and earn their place in the next round.

Tajikistan earlier lost to Japan 1-3.

“A wonderful game for Vietnam," Vietnam’s head coach Truong Quoc Tuan told the-afc.com. "As I said, more than half of the team are only 17 or 18 years old, and have never played in a Continental tournament. We came here with the aim to gain experience for our players, so every single game here is a very good lesson."

Tajikistan's head coach Eradzh Nasikhov said: “This was a good game. Our players did well, but unfortunately we didn’t fully take advantages of our opportunities, and that’s why we lost. It was our decision to not opt for a power play, because we wanted to score without it. There are many factors to our loss today, one of which was because we just played against one of the strongest teams in Asia, Japan. So maybe our players were tired. In a game like futsal, if you don’t utilise your opportunities, and don’t score, you lose.”

VNS