Manchester City cruise to 8-1 win

Vying for victory: Vietnamese player Nguyen Van Quyet (left) and Manchester City's Jason Denayer compete for the ball. — VNA/VNS Photo Quoc Khanh

HA NOI (VNS) — Dominating the match with skills, a perfect performance and world-level power, the English Premier League runners-up Manchester City soared to an 8-1 win over Viet Nam in a friendly match at Ha Noi’s National My Dinh Stadium.

Aleksandar Kolarov, Raheem Sterling and David Silva scored twice each, while substitutes Marcos “Rony” Lopes and Jose Angel Pozo added two more to help the Premiership team to an easy win.

Despite all their effort during the 90 minutes, the host could net the ball only once in an unequal test against the top Manchester City players.

Vietnamese striker Nguyen Van Quyet pulled back a goal for Viet Nam in the last minute. He trailed a pass from his teammate Tran Chi Cong to jet past a defender before lobbing the ball to stun substitute goalkeeper Willy Caballero. It sparked cheers from thousands of Vietnamese attendees.

Not a close contest

Left defender Serbian Aleksandar Kolarov curved a free kick to the back of the net and opened the score for the friendly match from the 10th minute.

Earlier, Manuel Garcia fired a first shot to the target just six minutes into the game, but Vietnamese keeper To Vinh Loi blocked it.

Garcia had a solo break past two Vietnamese defenders to fire a shot, but it went far outside the post.

In the 20th Raheem Sterling netted the ball from an 18-yard-box inside lob to the top right corner, burying Vietnamese keeper To Vinh Loi at his feet.

Just one minute later Spanish striker David Silva made it 3-0. He took a header from his teammate Sterling’s cross to hit the bar. He didn’t make any mistake when he tapped the ball in from the rebound.

Sterling marked his second goal in the first half when he made a perfect one-two pass with Kelechi Iheanacho to break through the Vietnamese defence before beating a Vietnamese keeper with a low shot to the back of the net.

The Vietnamese team replied in a rapid counter-attack in the 33rd when striker Nguyen Van Quyet faced Manchester City’s goalie Joe Hart from quick teamwork with winger Pham Thanh Luong. However, Quyet’s shot was parried by Joe Hart.

Viet Nam’s captain then rocketed a long range ball, but it went wide.

The host moved up their squad to launch more attacks to find a goal in the last minutes. But Cong Vinh’s efforts did not have any impact on the score.

Nguyen Van Quyet would have scored a goal from long range if his shot did not hit Manchester City’s defender Jason Denayer in the 43rd.

Japanese coach Toshyia Miura of Viet Nam’s national football team fielded three young players with a hope of change in the second half.

However, Manchester City did not leave space for the host’s pushing-up squad.

Six minutes from the second half, the visitors were awarded a penalty kick when striker Raheem Sterling was taken down in the 18-yard-box by a Vietnamese defender.

Kolarov scored his second goal of the match in a penalty kick, beating the Vietnamese keeper and marking the fifth goal of the friendly match.

In the 65th David Silva had a one-two pass with Sterling before sending a chip shot to the back of the net.

Substitutes Lopes and Pozo contributed two more goals in the 72nd and 78th minute, respectively.

In a friendly match against an English Premier League’s Arsenal last year, Viet Nam also lost 7-1. — VNS

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