The Vietnamese were undaunted in the face of their much more powerful rivals, and cranked up the gears in the second half in front of a capacity crowd of 40,000 including President Nguyen Minh Triet.

Vietnam coach Henrique Calisto said that the Brazilians, like many other big stars, can play fast while still controlling the ball and they do not have to run a lot. That was really a good lesson for Vietnamese players who sometimes played fast but then easily lost the ball. They got tired running with the ball, Mr Calisto said.

“I am pleased with the result because our players had only short time to practise but they got along well tonight,” said Brazil’s coach Dunga in the post-match press conference. Mr Dunga hoped that the friendly match with Vietnam would be good preparation for the Brazilians to get ready to the Beijing Games.