Iraq surprisingly took a second-minute lead when striker Younis Mahmoud received a pass from his teammate’s free-kick outside the penalty area and headed the ball into goalie Duong Hong Son’s net.

With dominantly physical strength, Iraqi players carved out scoring chances, but failed.  

Being stunned by the early goal, Vietnamese men played better and repelled their opponents’ attacks. In the last minutes of the first half, Vietnamese players applied the pressing tactics in the hope of equalizing the score. The best chance they created was when Anh Duc ventured forward down the left and the ball met Vu Phong who curled it over goalie Hassan Noor’s reach, but an Iraqi defender was on time to strike the ball away.

After the interval, coach Alfred Riedl replaced Cong Minh with Minh Chuyen, showing his determination to equallise the game. However, while Vietnam’s efforts did not pay off, they suffered the second defeat. From a free-kick outside the penalty box, captian Younis Mahmoud took a superb shot, the ball broke through the defense line and hit Hong Son’s net out of his reach.

No more goals were scored till Japanese referee Nishimura Yuichi’s last whistle. 

Earlier, Asian Cup defending champions Japan defeated Australia 5-4 in a penalty shootout in the first quarterfinal match in Hanoi.

Australil scored the first goal of the match in the 70^th minute, but Japan quickly equalisied the score in three minutes later. An Australian player was sent off for a foul on Naohiro Takahara. 

After the extra time, both sides did not change the status quo and entered penalty shootouts. However, stars Harry Kewell và Lucas Neil, who played well in the English Premiership, disappointed their supporters after their efforts were denied by goalie Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi.