Soccer-Defending champions Vietnam make winning start to ASEAN Championship


July ⁠24 (Reuters) - Vietnam kicked off the defence of their ⁠ASEAN Championship title with a 7-0 win ‌over Timor-Leste in Chonburi on Friday with Nguyen Dinh Bac scoring a hat-trick for Kim Sang-sik's side.

Brazil-born forward Do Hoang Hen ​gave Vietnam a seventh-minute lead ⁠before Dinh Bac doubled ⁠his side's advantage in the 31st minute with a ⁠curling ‌strike into the bottom corner of Dylan Niski's goal.

Hoang Hen and Dinh Bac scored ⁠and Nguyen Xuan Son was on target ​in stoppage ‌time to give Vietnam a five-goal lead at ⁠the interval.

Dinh ​Bac completed his hat-trick in the 65th minute when he steered home Bui Hoang Viet Anh's cutback and ⁠an own goal by Liam Farrugia ​completed the rout.

Singapore needed a spectacular last-gasp strike by Ilhan Fandi to register a 2-1 win over Cambodia ⁠in Phnom Penh after Shawal Anuar's 22nd-minute opener for the visitors had been cancelled out by Ouk Sovann in the 55th minute.

Ilhan claimed the points ​for Singapore 11 minutes into ⁠stoppage time when he flicked Song Ui-young's pass into ​the air to set himself ‌up for an acrobatic finish ​that gave Cambodian goalkeeper Hul Kimhuy no chance.

(Reporting by Michael Church, Editing by Ed Osmond)

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