Surprise win: Viet Nam players and coaches pose with their trophy and medals after winning the Asian Football Confederation U14 Girls' Regional Championship for Southeast Asian zone yesterday. Viet Nam beat defending champions Thailand 2-1 in the final match in Ha Noi. — Photo vff.org.vn

HA NOI (VNS) — Viet Nam beat defending champions Thailand 2-1 in the final to win the Asian Football Confederation U14 Girls' Regional Championship at the Youth Football Training Centre in Ha Noi yesterday.

The result was a surprise for both fans and experts because Thailand were appreciated better than the hosts in this tournament.

"Luck is a major factor in football competitions. Today, Viet Nam found good luck. I do not mean that we didn't deserve this victory. But, on the contrary, my players made all the efforts.

"They overcame psychological pressure and took chances to score goals," Viet Nam's coach Nguyen Tien Minh said after the match.

"Before the match, we carefully investigated Thailand's strong and weak points and asked my players to follow the instructions of the training board.

"Vietnamese players played very intelligently and managed to suppress Thai power. That is the reason why Viet Nam could beat Thailand," Minh added.

In the bronze-medal match played earlier, Myanmar defeated Malaysia 6-2.

With the advantage of physical strength, Myanmar played attack right from the first minute of the match. And Malaysia played defence-attack to stop the attack waves of their rivals.

However, Malaysian defenders couldn't resist Myanmar's pressure. In the eighth minute, Myat Noe Khin opened the score for Myanmar.

Before the first set closed, Myanmar scored three more goals to raise the score to 4-0.

After the break, Myanmar still dominated the match and they didn't meet any difficulty opening the gap to 6-0 thanks to goals by San Thaw Thaw in the 40th minute and WS Tun in the 53rd minute.

Although Malaysia didn't have any hope of levelling the score, they managed to narrow the difference to 2-6.

Elsie Celarryna scored a goal in the 59th minute and captain Anis Alshah scored another goal six minutes later.

The tournament, which kicked off on June 20, saw the participation of nine teams, including Laos, Indonesia, Cambodia, Singapore, and the Philippines. — VNS