Vietnam vs China

Vietnam welcome fellow strugglers China to the My Dinh National Stadium with nothing but pride left to play for in this World Cup qualifying showdown.

A humiliating 4-0 thumping at the hands of Australia last time out further added to Vietnam’s misery in the third stage of World Cup qualifying. The hosts take the field as the only nation in Group B to have lost all seven matches, conceding a group-high 16 goals while scoring a group-low four in return. If it’s a consolation, each of Vietnam’s three home defeats at this stage has come by an identical 1-0 scoreline. That was, in fact, a half-time score on each occasion, suggesting that second-half action could be at a premium. Bringing other competitions into the equation, the ‘Golden Star Warriors’ have failed to find the net in four of their last five internationals, which sums up their underdog status in a nutshell.

In the meantime, China’s desperate attempts to qualify for their first World Cup finals since 2002 have already gone in vain as they head into proceedings trailing third-placed Australia by nine points. In theory, they could still reduce that gap in the final three World Cup qualifying fixtures. However, the prospect of China winning all the remaining qualifiers while waiting for the Australians to lose three of their own looks to be well beyond the realm of the imagination. Coming into this matchday, the ‘Dragon’s Team’ have gone winless in four World Cup qualifying games in a row (D2, L2), conceding the opening goal on three of those occasions. It gets worse away from home, where Li Xiaopeng’s men have lost all three qualifiers by an aggregate score of 8-2, letting in 2+ goals in each defeat.