U19 Vietnam lost 0-7 to U19 Japan in their second match of the U-19 Nutifood Cup on Wednesday evening.

Great expectation for a tough and interesting match between the two teams vanished just in the first 20 minutes of the game in which the latter scored 4 goals into the net of the former.

The local team has been expected to play a better game after the 1-2 loss to U19 AS Roma in the first match. The Italian strong and well-regarded team is reported to have to play defensively against Vietnam.

However, they couldn’t outperform themselves when facing a team of a different class - midfielder Takumi Minamino scored the first goal within the first minute of the game.   After the goal, Vietnam tried to accelerate the speed of the game for an offense. But as Japan played a very tough game by keeping proper distance between the team’s members, Vietnam failed to breach the defense lines after many waves of attack.

Facing deadlocks in attacking, Vietnam’s defensive lines became loosen, offering Japanese players, including Takumi Minamino, Takahiro Sekine, and  Miura Genta the opportunities to score 3 more goals in the 5th, 17th and 20th minutes of the game.

After the break, U19 Japan actively reduced the pace of the game, but the Vietnamese players still could not score any goal. Taking advantage of loosening defensive lines of Vietnam, Reo Mochizuki, Ryosuke Tamura and Kitagawa Shuto scored three more goals into the net of Vietnam in the 75th, 86th and 91st minute in the second half of the game.

Winning this game, Japan pinned high hope for the championship again as they will match with U19 AS Roma, which take the lead with 6 points after two matches, in the last game.

"I sincerely apologize to the fans and feel very embarrassed with the result today, French coach Guillaume Graechen of Vietnam said after the game.

“We are defeated partly due to early goals. Our players have not been prepared to deal with such cases like this, as a number of players in the team is psychologically weak when facing such cases.”

“Additionally, they arealso tired out after practicing for seven months without a day off.”

“In terms of strategic planning, I actually made the mistake of making too many gaps between the midfielders and defenders and create opportunities for the Japanese players.

“After this game, we learned a lot of lessons. First, it is clear that a Japanese team has outstanding individuals. And facing such a strong team we need to be psychologically well-prepared for early loss so that the team member won’t be in the same state as they were today.”

“Finally, we need to improve muscular strength in the future. They need to gain about 10 kilogram each within the next year."

Meanwhile, coach Suzuki Masakaru of U19 Japan said: “This victory is the result of our exercise, but I'm really quite surprised about the final result.”

“The Vietnamese players still play well as they did in the previous match with AS Roma, but the difference is that we have found a way to fix their strategies. The weakness of Vietnamese players is the ability to judge, they do not know how to get in between our defensive lines.”

“Additionally, the Vietnamese players also proved too hasty, creating so many gaps so that we could take advantage of. "