Jordan vs Vietnam Predictions

When they were drawn with the two teams that made the final World Cup qualification play-off round, Jordan weren’t expected to make much headway in this Asian Cup, though Vital Borkelmans’ men proved people wrong as they somewhat comfortably topped Group B. After some encouraging performances, they’ll be confident of beating a Vietnam side that came through as one of the best third-place finishers.

On match-day one, Jordan were fortunate to beat the Australians; they did defend well, while they deserve credit for taking their chance when it came along, but on another day, they would’ve been beat quite comfortably, as the Aussies dominated the ball and had considerably more scoring opportunities. However, the Jordanians used that victory to push forward and deliver an excellent performance against a Syrian side that started the game as favourites. On that occasion, Borkelmans’ men showed that they’re capable of shrugging off weak attacks, while they also showed themselves to be both creative in the final third and useful in front of goal, as they created 2.09 expected goals and found the back of the net twice.

It’s probably sensible to not read too much into match-day three as far as Jordan are concerned, as they were already guaranteed a place in the knockouts and they played accordingly. If we judge the Jordanians on their performance against Syria on match-day two, then it’s easy to see them doing well against a Vietnam side that snuck through as one of the best third place teams.

At both ends of the pitch, Vietnam have looked weaker than Jordan; they’ve conceded four more goals at this competition, while they have only one clean sheet compared to the three that Jordan have accumulated. That said, the performances of the Vietnamese in UAE haven’t been completely without promise. They proved that they can hurt weak teams when beating Yemen by two goals to nil on match-day three, while their attacking efforts against Iraq on match-day one, when they created 1.39 expected goals and scored twice, were far from poor. A repeat of such attacking efforts would surely see them create at least a few half-decent openings against the Jordanians on Sunday.

From a betting point of view, ‘Both Teams to Score’ looks a tad overpriced. Jordan have shown more than enough going forward to make life tough for a Vietnam back-line that hasn’t provided too much resistance at this tournament, though it would be a surprise if Borkelmans’ side weren’t tested at the back. Vietnam created plenty against Iraq when scoring twice on match-day one, while their efforts last time out were pleasing too. With both teams averaging over 1.0 expected goals for and with both conceding more than 1.0 on average, a bet on both to find the net represents a smidgen of value.