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Boss on Vietnam, 'suffering' and goals

Arsène Wenger at the Hanoi press conference
Arsène Wenger

Arsene Wenger spoke to the media after Arsenal beat Vietnam 7-1 on Wednesday. Here is a transcript of the press conference:

on the game...
It was a game played with good pace and a good spirit. For us of course it was a good preparation for the season. Vietnam started very quick, very strong, and the first minutes were for them. But after that on our first chance we scored and we scored some great goals. We played at a good pace and overall it was a very positive night. Vietnam have qualities and I think they suffered a little bit defensively against our pace up front. Overall in midfield I felt Vietnam played very well. The captain [Pham Thanh Luong] impressed me. From now on we will watch the results of Vietnam at Arsenal.

on the 'Running Man'…
We made a visit to a pagoda in the city and the fans ran behind the coach. He was the one who refused to give up and ran after the coach. Everybody inside started to cheer him and to reward him we brought him on the coach and congratulated him. That's how it happened. He was very strong and today he is a star in Vietnam!

"It was one of the few times in my life that I enjoyed when an opponent scored. It was such a great moment in the stadium"

Arsene Wenger

on Vietnamese football…
It is very difficult to judge on one game but I believe they have good technique, good mobility and their defence suffered against our quality up front. Overall they have the basic quality and it was great to see the enthusiasm and the happiness when they scored the goal. It was one of the few times in my life that I enjoyed when an opponent scored. It was such a great moment in the stadium and the enthusiasm of the crowd was so big that of course they deserve to be happy.

on what Arsenal gained from the game…
We learned first of all to play at a high pace, because it was a pacy game. We learned to suffer physically because we had two hard sessions yesterday and we practised today. The conditions, the climate, are difficult for us so we had to learn to suffer a little bit and keep our concentration to keep the level of our game high.

on the prospect of returning to Vietnam…
I hope so. We want to share the quality of our game with as many fans as possible. We have the feeling here in Vietnam that people enjoy our game and the impression we have is that our club is very loved here. That makes us very happy. What has impressed me is the warm welcome and the attitude of everybody. Everyone here, all our delegations, were very impressed by the welcome.

We will certainly try to come back because we had such a positive experience, but I am not the only one to decide on that. Vietnam must want us back as well. The football is always moving forward and football is always improving. What is important in our game today, because it is a world competition, is the speed of improvement. I think the next step, like in Indonesia, is for Vietnam to first come up in the Asian competition and qualify one time for the World Cup. That will of course have a huge impact on the game here. At the moment they have the same basic ingredients that I saw when I was in Japan in 1995 and 1996. They have to develop their players.

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