Coach Mai Duc Chung admits the Vietnamese national team won luckily

The captain of the Vietnamese women's national team shared notable comments after the hard-fought victory over India.

Speaking after the 2-1 victory over the Indian women's national team in the opening match of the 2026 AFC Women's Asian Cup finals, head coach Mai Duc Chung praised his players' competitive spirit, stating that composure helped the Vietnamese women's team overcome difficult moments in the match.

“This was a match between two evenly matched teams. We were somewhat luckier to secure the win. This result will be a significant motivation for the Vietnamese women's team on the path ahead. Our disadvantage was that after the Lunar New Year break, the players mainly trained without many competitive matches, so the match feeling in the opener wasn't truly optimal,” Coach Mai Duc Chung shared.

Analyzing the match's progression, the head coach of the Vietnamese women's national team emphasized: “When India equalized, the whole team did not falter. The cheers and encouragement from Vietnamese fans in the stands boosted the players' morale to continue striving for the next goal. I also want to affirm that the Vietnamese women's team controlled the ball better than India. The issue was simply that we didn't capitalize on many opportunities to score more goals.”

According to him, the Indian women's team mainly used long balls instead of short combinations, and the Vietnamese players were prepared to neutralize this style of play. “The team played confidently and boldly, and I believe my players will score more goals. In fact, during stoppage time, the Vietnamese women's team scored the decisive goal for a 2-1 victory,” Coach Mai Duc Chung said.

In the player interview segment, midfielder Ngan Thi Van Su – who scored the double that earned three points for the Vietnamese women's team – stated: “The whole team played with over 200% effort. The coaching staff devised a suitable match strategy for us to achieve a good result. When the unfortunate conceded goal happened, we encouraged each other that there was still time and we needed to strive even more.”

The midfielder born in 2001 also affirmed that the whole team will seriously learn from the situation that led to conceding a goal to improve in the upcoming matches, determined to strive towards the set tournament objectives.