AFF Cup Semi-Finals: Philippines' Achilles' heel and Vietnam's 3 weaknesses

Quang Hai points out the "fatal" weakness of the Philippines

Before the clash with the Philippines in the semi-finals of the AFF Cup 2018, Quang Hai made comments about his opponent. The midfielder of Hanoi FC said that coach Eriksson's team has a fairly modern playing style but does not have any special tactics. Besides, he also believes that the opponent's "weak point" lies in the position of central defender Alvaro Silva.

After watching the match between Indonesia and the Philippines, Quang Hai said: “The Philippines played with a 4-4-2 formation. They have a fairly modern and open style of play but there is nothing too special. Among them, central defender Alvaro Silva, who was my teammate at Hanoi FC (in 2017), is a player with good height but handles situations slowly.

They may not have used their full strength in this match, so we cannot have a comprehensive view. However, I pay special attention to the Philippines' attacks on the left wing. They mainly attack on this wing and then switch to the right wing when approaching the 16m50 area, thereby making the attack situation unpredictable."

3 biggest problems of Vietnam team

Ineffective finishing:Statistics show that we have fired 59 shots after 4 group stage matches but only 27 of them were on target and Vietnam only scored 8 goals. The accuracy rate of the players is less than 50%.

Typical of our ineffectiveness in finishing was in the two matches against Myanmar and Cambodia. In each match, Vietnam had dozens of shots, against Myanmar we had 15 shots on goal but only 5 were on target, and against Cambodia we had 25 shots but only 12 were on target. That was a huge waste of opportunities and such ineffectiveness was very worrying when we played the two semi-final matches against the Philippines.

Match with Malaysia Team. Photo: Internet

It is hard to imagine that Vietnam will have as many chances to score against the Philippines as they did against Cambodia, or even Myanmar. If against the Philippines we still shoot too "gentle" and too inaccurately, finding a goal will become very difficult.

Remember, we are better at playing with our feet than our heads (only 2/8 goals were scored with our heads, of which only 1 was a well-coordinated goal), but the players' feet are still so unsharp, which is really worrying.

Depends a lot on Quang Hai, Van Duc:Whether attacking or counter-attacking, the performance of the Vietnamese team depends a lot on Quang Hai and Van Duc. These are two players with the highest potential to create breakthroughs thanks to their ability to move flexibly, handle the ball well in narrow spaces, dribble and shoot with few touches.

Quang Hai (middle) started playing well in the ball distribution position even though Laos was not a high-dose test. Photo: Anh Duc

Both Quang Hai and Van Duc are players who rarely make unnecessary movements and often make precise decisions when handling the ball. They know when to keep the ball, when to dribble, pass or shoot. They know how to occupy space and they also work well together. They can play independently or coordinate well.

But our other attacking players do not have those qualities. Therefore, it will be very worrying for us if the opponent tries to find every way to "eliminate" Van Duc and Quang Hai by surrounding them in large numbers, marking them too much individually and being ready to foul them to prevent them from playing the ball.

From people to gameplay, everything has been "exposed"?Although Mr. Park Hang Seo is very good at creating surprises for opponents from small details, it is unclear whether he can still create surprises like that at this time? In terms of personnel, it can be said that the Korean coach has used all the best players available.

Coach Park Hang Seo. Photo: Trung Kien

Van Hau, Cong Phuong, Quang Hai, Anh Duc, Van Duc, Trong Hoang... have all shown their outstanding qualities. In terms of tactics, it is certainly difficult to expect the team to surprise with any other formation than the current 3-4-3 (attack) or 5-4-1 (defense). Regarding the transfer of players' positions, Mr. Park has also done it. I wonder if he still has any "tricks" up his sleeve?

10am today, online football ticket sales open for Vietnam vs Philippines

At 10:00 a.m. today, November 28, the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) will open the sale of 25,000 online football tickets for the Vietnam vs. Philippines match, AFF Cup 2018 semi-final. Here are instructions for buying football tickets online.

Register to buy tickets for the AFF Cup 2018 semi-final football match between Vietnam and the Philippines (taking place on December 6) at the following links:

http://vebongdaonline.vn/

www.vebongonline.com.vn

http://vebongda.vff.org.vn/

https://ticketonline.vff.org.vn/

Online ticket sales end date: 12:00 noon, November 29, 2018 (Thursday) or until tickets run out, whichever comes first.

Notes when buying tickets

Each person can only buy 1 time with ID card/Citizen ID card, the maximum number of tickets for 1 person/order is 4 tickets of the same value.

Tickets for the Vietnam - Philippines match have 4 prices: 200-300-400-500 thousand VND.