Coach Park Hang-seo and his team after Oman's 3-1 victory over Turkmenistan had to "hold their breath" waiting for the results of the remaining match between Lebanon and North Korea. If Lebanon does not beat North Korea by 4 goals, the Vietnamese team will have a ticket to the 1/8 round of the 2019 Asian Cup.
Everything became favorable for the Vietnamese team when in the situation of having to find a goal, Lebanon had to concede an early goal. In the 9th minute, North Korea was awarded a free kick outside the penalty area, striker Park Kwang-Ryong was determined to send the ball away easily but goalkeeper Khalil missed the ball, opening the score for the East Asian representative.
Park Kwang-Ryong's opening goal forced Lebanon to score 5 more goals to get a ticket to the next round. That is the reason why Lebanon later pushed up their formation with a total attack style of play to find a goal.
However, it was not until the 27th minute that Lebanon equalized the score 1-1. Captain Maatouk solo overcame 2 white defenders and returned a favorable shot for G.Melki to finish close to the goal to equalize for Lebanon.
The second half witnessed a one-sided game when Lebanon completely imposed their playing style and continuously created pressure on the North Korean DT goal.
In the 65th minute, after a cross from the left wing by his teammate, Alhelwe caught a classy left-footed volley to increase the score to 2-1 for Lebanon. A few minutes later, the gap was widened to 3-1 after Hassan Maatouk successfully took a penalty kick.
With just 2 more goals,lebanon will officially eliminate Vietnam to squeeze through the narrow door to win a ticket to the round of 16. However, their subsequent attacking efforts only allowed them to score one more goal in the final minutes of extra time.
Winning 4-1 against North Korea, Lebanon's team had the same goal difference as Vietnam's team but ranked behind due to the fair play index. Specifically, the Lebanese Open will receive 7 yellow cards while the Vietnamese Open will only receive 5 yellow cards. Thus, the Vietnam Open is the 4th name among the 6 teams with the best results in the 3rd place and qualified for the round of 16.
