Despite suffering from the narrow 2-1 defeat against Vietnam in the Asian Cup qualifier, Cambodia caused many difficulties for their opponents’ defensive line.
In the post-match press conference, Cambodia head coach Leonardo Vitorino said he firmly believed that his side can earn a better result if the players remained focused at the end of the game.
“Cambodia was very determined to win the match. My team had many opportunities to score against Vietnam, but those chances were wasted,” Vitorino said, as quoted by Zing.vn.
On the other hand, the Brazilian coach insisted Cambodia football had reached the same level with their neighboring team.
“When I encountered Vietnam, I knew if we suffered from a lapse of concentration, we would give their attackers the opportunity to score, and the difference between two teams today is the ability to take advantage. We failed to score despite having several clear cut chances, and Vietnam punished us when their chance arrived.”
A late winner from Quang Hai gave Vietnam a hard-fought three points against Cambodia. Earlier, the visitors had taken the lead through Van Queyet after just four minutes, but Cambodia’s star man Chan Vathanaka leveled seven minutes later.