AFF Cup semi-final and the story of "fate"

Since 2004, the Southeast Asian Championship has changed its competition format with semi-finalists and finalists playing two home and away matches, with each AFF Cup having four semi-final matches.

Up to this point (2 first leg semi-finals of AFF Cup 2018), there have been a total of 26 semi-finals. Accordingly, semi-finals often take place at the home field of the second-placed team and it is not surprising that the away team is often the winner. It is quite surprising that the Vietnamese team is the team holding 2 "sad records".

The pain named My Dinh

In the 7 AFF Cup home-away semi-final matches, with 14 matches played, the only team that lost the away leg was the Vietnam team under coach Huu Thang (the away team won 7 times, drew 6 times and lost 1). There were 13 times that the away team only drew and won when playing the away leg of the semi-final. The reason for this high rate is because they were all the top teams, playing against the home team, the second-placed team in the group.

Veteran Anh Duc must still remember the "pain called My Dinh". Photo: Internet

At that time, the Vietnamese team lost 1-2 to Indonesia in the first leg of the 2016 AFF Cup at Pakansari Stadium and in the second leg, 24-year-old young player Manahati Lestusenequalized 2-2 in the last second of the match, missing out on a ticket to the final. More than anyone else, captain Van Quyet was the one who had to endure this “pain called My Dinh” when the whistle of Chinese referee - Pho Minh ended the match.

Not only that, out of 13 times the away teams only drew and won in the first leg of the semi-finals, only 2 teams lost their advantage and were eliminated in the semi-finals, namely the Vietnamese team. That means 11/13 times, the teams that won (or drew) in the first leg of the semi-finals were present in the final match of that season. More precisely, 5/6 teams that won the first leg had tickets to the AFF Cup final.

AFF Cup 2014, Japanese coach T. Miura and the Vietnam team under Anh Duc, Cong Vinh, Trong Hoang, Van Quyet, after winning 2-1 on Malaysia's field in the first leg but lost 4-5 in the final in AFF Cup 2014. The remaining team is Singapore in AFF Cup 2008, drew 0-0 at My Dinh Stadium but lost 0-1 in the second leg.

Left-back Van Bien and goalkeeper Nguyen Manh made professional mistakes, but T. Miura took full responsibility. The incident has passed, but no Vietnamese fan can forget the "fateful night" at My Dinh Stadium. That pain haunted many national players and they asked to leave the national team soon after!

Difficult to repeat

That means in the history of 11 AFF Cups, the Vietnamese team is the only one of 6 teams (not counting the 2018 AFF Cup) that won the first leg but missed the ticket to the final.

What no one wants to believe at AFF Cup 2014. Photo: Internet

No one believed it, even the unexpected 2-4 defeat of the Vietnamese team against Malaysia at My Dinh National Stadium, causing the President of the Vietnam Football Federation (VFF) Le Hung Dung to express to the media his suspicions that someone might have fixed the match and asked the police to investigate this matter. However, the leader of the General Department of Police later announced that no investigation would be opened because there were no signs of any violations.

Thus, among the 4 teams that made it to the semi-finals, if based on statistics, Vietnam's chance of making it to the final is the highest at 83.3% (5/6 teams). On the contrary, the Philippines' chance of turning the situation around is only 16.7% (1/6 teams), much smaller than that of host Vietnam.

But in football, anything can happen, so there is no other way but for Que Ngoc Hai and his teammates to carefully protect the advantage they just gained in the Philippines.

Caution is always necessary, but perhaps we should not be too worried. In the specific context, experts believe that only by summoning back the players who have returned to play for their clubs can the Philippines perform the “Hanoi Miracle” at My Dinh Stadium tomorrow (December 6).