The Vietnamese national women’s football team thrashed host Bahrain 8-0 yesterday at the opening of Group C of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2014. It was a morale boost in their pursuit to attend the 2015 World Cup in Canada.
At the Manama national stadium in Bahrain, midfielder Nguyen Thi Muon scored a hat-trick, with goals in the 38th, 58th and 70th minutes. Striker Nguyen Thi Minh Nguyet opened the scoring just three minutes into the match.
Nguyen Thi Xuyen, Nguyen Thi Lieu, Tran Thi Kim Hong, and substitute Nguyen Thi Kim Tien, added each a goal to finish the big opening victory.
The visiting team was booked with one yellow card during the match, while the host received four yellow cards.
In the other group match, Hong Kong began their qualifying campaign with a 2-1 win over Kyrgyzstan.
On May 24, Vietnam will face Kyrgyzstan, while the host will take on Hong Kong.
With 16 teams, including Vietnam, divided into four groups at the group stage of the 2014 Asian Cup, each team plays one match against every other team in the group to select the leader.
The four winners will advance and meet the four automatic qualifiers -- including Australia, Japan, China, and South Korea -- to play in the finals to decide the top five teams to head to Canada in 2015.