Young Socceroos beaten by Vietnam

The Young Socceroos have been beaten 5-1 by Vietnam in their final Group F qualifying match at the AFC U-19 Championship 2014 in Malaysia.

The Young Socceroos have been beaten 5-1 by Vietnam in their final Group F qualifying match at the AFC U-19 Championship 2014 at Kuala Lumpur Stadium in Malaysia.

The Vietnamese started strongly and led the first half 3-1 before adding two more goals to topple Australia off the top of the table standings and punch their tickets to the October 2014 finals in Myanmar.

The match-s eventual MVP Nguyen Cong Phuong opened the scoring on nine minutes for Nguyen Quoc Tuan-s side who were on fire and doubled their lead through Hoang Thanh Tung six minutes later.

Vietnam striker Nguyen Van Toan extended the lead to 3-0 as he scored against the Young Soccerros on 44 minutes but Paul Okon-s boys pulled one back through Petros Skapetis three minutes into firts half stoppage time.

Nguyen Cong Phuong then doubled his personal tally for the match by finding Australia-s- net again 10 minutes after the restart before defender Le Van Son rubbed salt on the Australians- wound with a penalty kick on 70 minutes to settle the game at 5-1.

Vietnam, who won all their three games in the group, have now became the first team to qualify for the tournament proper through the ongoing qualifiers where 37 countries are contesting in nine groups for berths in the finals.

The winners of the nine groups, five from the West Zone and four from the East, will each book a ticket to the finals alongside six second best-placed sides and hosts Myanmar.

Australia, finishing on six points from three matches, now play the waiting game as they await the results of the other eight groups to see if they can claim one of the six second-best tickets.