Teams to wear black armbands in Vietnam- Iraq match

In this morning’s technical meeting in Tehran, Iran, FIFA and the Asian Football Association agreed to the proposal for players to wear black bands and observe a minute’s silence in honor of victims of the bombing attack in Iraq on March 25. The match between Iraq and Vietnam will kick off at 9 p.m (local time) on March 29. 

In the first leg match at My Dinh Stadium, Vietnam almost scored a shock upset against the former Asian champion. Photo: Duc Dong.

In the first leg match at My Dinh Stadium in Hanoi, Cong Vinh sent Vietnam into the lead with the first goal of the game. However, with only seconds remaining in the match, the former Asian champions broke local hearts when they leveled the scores through a penalty after Thanh Hien’s hand came into contact with the ball in the penalty area.

Currently sitting on seven points on the table, Vietnam will jump to into second position in group F if they are able to defeat Iraq (9 points). However, Vietnam is in a tough spot compared to other teams running second in other groups, and is not likely to make the later qualifying rounds for the World Cup. But if they can finish in second place in their group, Vietnam will have an advantage when it comes to the seeding for the finals of the 2019 Asian Cup.

The referee in charge of tomorrow’s match at Ghavamin Stadium is Australian Peter Green.