Vietnam 1-7 Arsenal – Gunners hit another 7 in Hanoi

Arsenal scored 7 goals for the second time on their Asia Tour to record a comfortable win against Vietnam’s national team today. The Gunners became the first English side to play in Vietnam and judging by their reception, it probably won’t be their last visit to a country that clearly has a huge fan base for the club.

The tourists didn’t take long to find the first goal, with Olivier Giroud’s effort going in off of the far post. It was Arsenal’s first chance of the game and the Frenchman took it well. There would be more to follow for Giroud who is looking sharper in front of goal already.

Giroud had the confidence to take on a shot from range a little later in the half and it wasn’t too far away from going in. Lukas Podolski should have done better with a header after a fine cross from Serge Gnabry.

The German striker had the ball in the back of the net a little later in the half, but it was disallowed for offside. Podolski then looked certain to score when played in wonderfully by Gnabry, but opted to unselfishly pass to Giroud, but his pass didn’t reach Giroud, who was probably expecting a Podolski shot.

Podolski continued to be frustrated as a shot of his beat the Vietnamese goalkeeper, but crashed against the post and back out. Gnabry’s follow up was then cleared off the line.

As the half approached the end, Giroud scored twice in quick succession to grab a hat-trick on the night. The Frenchman curled in a beauty following a poor clearance and then completed his hat-trick on the stroke of half time with another neat finish.

Arsenal started the second half just as the finished it, scoring within a minute of the restart. Against the Indonesia Dream Team on Sunday, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain set up Theo Walcott for his goal. Walcott returned the favour here today as Chamberlain scored a beautiful curler into the top corner. Arsenal have scored 14 goals in two games overall on the Asia Tour so far, and the majority of goals scored have been lovely finishes.

Chuba Akpom was one of the many subs that Arsene Wenger brought on at the break and the youngster looked to build on his goal scored against Indonesia at the weekend. Just over ten minutes into the second half he had his goal, shortly after testing the Vietnam keeper, bending one past the keeper to make it 5-0. Within minutes it was 6 as up and coming star Gedion Zelalem picked a pass that tore open the defence and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain set it up on a plate for Akpom to net his second.

Arsenal were 6-0 up with half an hour to go. It could have ended up and embarrassing score for Vietnam, but Arsenal would only score once more. They matched their 7 in Indonesia with 7 in Vietnam when Ignasi Miquel fired low and hard past the goalkeeper.

Vietnam had played some good football in the first half without threatening an awful lot. They probably deserved a goal on the night and it came when Tran Manh Dung lifted a shot over Damian Martinez to send the crowd wild, even the fans wearing Arsenal shirts. It meant a lot to the Vietnam fans and overall a consolation goal was a fair reward for the effort put in.

The rain started to fall heavily towards the end and the fans rushed for cover. Vietnam’s sub goalkeeper Tran Buu Ngoc was sent off in the last minute for handling outside of his box, so with no goalkeeper on the bench, one of their outfield players stepped in, wearing a bib instead of a goalkeeper’s shirt. He managed to keep a clean sheet as Walcott couldn’t direct the resulting free-kick on target and after that, not much football was played before the final whistle blew.

Arsenal’s next step on the Asia Tour is Japan, where they will face Arsene Wenger’s former club Nagoya Grampus on Monday, before taking on Urawa Red Diamonds a week on Friday.

The standard of Japanese football is significantly better than that in Indonesia and Vietnam, which means there probably won’t be any 7 goal wins when taking on the Japanese teams. It should be a good test for the Gunners, both in terms of quality of football and also for their fitness too.

So far, so good in pre-season. Keep the goals coming Arsenal, particularly you, Mr.Giroud…

Arsenal comfortably saw of the Vietnamese national team today, with Olivier Giroud bagging a hat-trick.