Phan Thanh Binh opened the scoring for Vietnam in the first half. The Gulf Cup holders continued to keep up pressure and managed a draw with Andres Quintana scoring with a neat header in the second half.

“It was a tough match against strong opponents who have many players that are at least 10cm taller than our players,” Vietnam’s chief coach Alfred Riedl told reporters after the match. “We scored a lucky goal today but I am pleased with it because we made it against very strong opponents.”

The match saw a number of Vietnamese players tackled and injured, creating a headache for the Austrian coach in planning the lineup for the last group match against defending champions Japan.

“Injury could be the biggest problem for us but we will try not to make it easy for Japan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Qatar’s coach Musovic did not blame goalie Mohamed Ahmed for the mistake that enabled Vietnam to get ahead of the game.

“Goalkeeper errors are part of football and he is still the best keeper in Qatar and one of the best in Asia,” said Musovic. “We were not lucky today as we lost two clear chances to score. But that is football.”

He said he did not expect to draw with Vietnam.