Hanoi (VNA) – The Vietnamesewomen’s football team missed their chance to compete in the 2020 Tokyo OlympicGames following their 1-2 loss to Australia in the return leg of the event’splay-off on March 11.

The game was played behind closed doors atCam Pha Stadium in northern Quang Ninh province due to growing fears of theCOVID-19 outbreak.

Earlier, Vietnam lost 0-5 to Australia, theworld’s No 7 team, in the first leg. With this result, Australia secured aplace in the 2020 Olympic Games with 7-1 win on aggregate.

Striker Sam Kerr gave Australia a 1-0 leadin the 15th minute. The visiting side continued to maintain their pressure anddoubled their goals in the 27th minute thanks to Hayley Raso.

The dominance still belonged to theAustralian team in the second half.

The Vietnamese goal was threatenedseriously by counter attacks of Australia. However, goalkeeper Tran Thi KimThanh emerged as a bright spot with many situations to defend her goal.

Vietnam resisted patiently and had a goalto narrow the gap to 1-2 in the 55th minute. Captain and striker Huynh Nhu capitalisedon a defensive error and lobbed the ball over the Australian goalie.

This was the first time in the history ofconfrontation at the national team level, Vietnam were able to score pastAustralia.

In their last six matches, Vietnam hadconceded 34 goals and scored none.

Nhu’s goal helped the team in red play moreconfidently in the remaining minutes but Vietnam could not take their chancesto score more goals./.