February 7 – Vietnam beat Chinese Taipei 2-1 in their playoff tie in India on Sunday to qualify for their first ever Women’s World Cup finals Australia/New Zealand 2023.
Chinese Taipei now join Thailand in the Inter-Confederation Playoffs where a win will take them into their first FIFA Women’s World Cup in 41 years.
Vietnamese football had been on an upward curve pre-pandemic and the country have returned strongly to international competition with the me qualifying for the final rounds of 2022 World Cup qualifying for the first time and now the women leading the way with 2023 qualification.
Vietnam’s qualification came after overcoming a covid outbreak prior to the Asian Cup, and then a tough schedule that saw the final three qualification games completed inside a week and hard on the heels of the Asian Cup quarter finals.
Vietnam opened the qualifiers with a 2-0 win over Thailand but when Chinese Taipei beat the Thais 3-0, Vietnam had to win to be sure of automatic qualification.
Vietnam had the lead in the seventh minute as Chuong Thi Kieu headed in Nguyen Thi Tuyet Dung’s corner. Chinese Taipei thought they had equalised on 19 minutes but the goal wasn’t given. The half ended with Vietnam a goal up.
Chinese Taipei did get an equaliser at the start of the second half when midfielder Wu Kai-Ching’s stole the ball, beat several Vietnam players before releasing Su Hy-Ysuan who sent her shot into the bottom left corner past goalkeeper Tran Thi Kim Thanh.
Vietnam repsonded in the 56th minute when Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy brilliantly controlled Thai Thi Thao’s cross before blasting the ball past Tsai Ming-Jung.
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