The third round of the World Preliminary Asian Round of 36 is in full swing, and as a result, this round of matches has completely become a hotbed of upsets. A total of 9 games were played before 0:00, of which 4 were big upsets. South Korea, Syria, and the national football team dropped the chain one after another, and Vietnam lost 0-1 away to Indonesia in the key game of qualifying, and suffered a double kill from Indonesia in just two months.
Vietnam and Indonesia are in Group F, and in the first two rounds of this group, Iraq won two consecutive games and ranked first with six points, Vietnam is second with three points, the Philippines and Indonesia are both with one point, and Indonesia is at the bottom of the group with a goal difference. In terms of world rankings, Vietnam is ranked 105th and Indonesia is ranked 142nd, a notch difference between the two sides. You must know that Vietnam reached the last round of 12 and defeated the national football team, and they have a great tendency to impact the second-rate in Asia. In the impression of fans, Indonesia is still the traditional fish belly in Southeast Asia. However, in the Asian Cup two months ago, Indonesia beat Vietnam 1-0 to reach the round of 16. Even so, fans still believe that Vietnam has the strength to complete revenge in the World Preliminary Round.
However, in the world preliminaries, the Vietnamese team dropped the chain again. In terms of starters, Vietnam set up a back five formation, hoping to stabilize the away game, and the two sides were evenly matched in the first half to 0-0. However, in the 54th minute of the second half, Indonesia's Vekini scored the only goal of the game, and Indonesia defeated Vietnam 1-0 at home to move up to second in the group. In terms of statistics, the Vietnamese team did not take advantage of the number of shots on goal or the percentage of possession. In two months, Indonesia, which is only ranked 142nd in FIFA, has beaten Vietnam in a row to shine in Asia. And the Vietnamese team, the former national football team, has regressed surprisingly.
Before this game, Syria, another bitter player in Group B, also fell off the chain, and they were forced to draw by the Myanmar team. In the last Top 40 and the last Top 12, Syria was the bitter master of the national football team. In the Asian Cup, the Syrian team also reached the round of 16, and fought with the Iranian team to a penalty shootout, losing 3-5. This shows that the Syrian team is fully capable of being a first-class team in Asia. However, in the away game against Myanmar, Syria was beaten by the opponent by the first goal, and then equalized in the second half with difficulty, and has not been able to break through the Myanmar team goal again. In this way, the advantage that the Syrian team had worked so hard to build in the first round against the North Korean team was also squandered, and they also smelled the danger of being out of the game.
As for the other two big upsets, they are all from the national football team. South Korea was held to a draw by Thailand after scoring the first goal at home. After Son Heung-min scored in the first half, the South Korean team began to wave and missed many opportunities. Thailand equalized in the second half with a counterattack from Supana, and held on for the last half hour to earn a hard-earned point. After the South Korean team was forced to draw by Malaysia in the Asian Cup, they planted it on the Thai team. However, the South Korean team is still at the top of the table with 7 points in 3 rounds, and they still have the capital to go down.
But the national football team is different. The most angry and regretful thing for fans is the national football team, after all, the national football team led Singapore 2-0 in the first half with Wu Lei's brace. As a result, in the second half, Yan Junling was chased back by a position error, and then Fernando was blocked, and Ivankovic took out the striker on the field, and was immediately chased back. In stoppage time, he was almost killed by Singapore, but fortunately there was no VAR, and the national football team escaped a penalty, otherwise it would really be a disaster.
So the question is, which of the four upsets of Indonesia 1-0 Vietnam, Myanmar 1-1 Syria, South Korea 1-1 Thailand, and Singapore 2-2 national football team surprised you the most?