Defeating U19 Myanmar, U19 Vietnam enters the semi-finals

The 2-0 victory over U19 Myanmar helped U19 Vietnam take the top spot in Group B with 10 points after four matches. Coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team will face U19 Laos in the semi-finals of the U19 Southeast Asian tournament.

With the same seven points as U19 Vietnam and U19 Malaysia, but due to the inferior goal difference, U19 Myanmar ranked third in Group B. The team of German strategist Gerd Ziese had to get a point in the last match of the group stage to be able to get a ticket to the semi-finals. Therefore, right after the opening whistle, they pushed up their attacking formation. The fiery way U19 Myanmar entered the game overwhelmed U19 Vietnam, in just the first three minutes, they gave the opponent two opportunities to open the score.

At the 35th second, a teammate cleverly passed the ball between two U19 Vietnam defenders, helping Zin Phyo face goalkeeper Thanh Tuan. However, the player wearing the number 16 shirt shot the ball wide of the post. Less than two minutes later, Zin Phyo had a very tricky free kick, the ball went over the wall and flew close to the crossbar. But the goal still did not come because goalkeeper Thanh Tuan had a very quick reflex, trying to jump up and punch the ball out of bounds to save the goal.

Vietnam U19 has not conceded a single goal at the Southeast Asian U19 tournament.

Despite the heavy rain, more than a thousand Vietnamese people living and working in Laos still came to the national stadium to cheer. The shouts of “Vietnam, keep going” helped coach Hoang Anh Tuan and his team quickly regain their confidence after a few minutes of being outplayed. Although they organized many attacks, the final passes of the players in white were always inaccurate, leading to their inability to threaten Thitsar Min’s goal.

It was thought that the first half would end in a draw, but unexpectedly, U19 Vietnam opened the scoring in the 44th minute. After a strong clearance from Tan Tai, the U19 Myanmar midfielder made a mistake. Instead of retreating to block, he jumped up to fight for the ball in a 5-5-5 situation with Tien Linh. The opponent defender's missed header gave Duy Khanh a chance to run down and make a delicate chip to score the opening goal.

In the second half, U19 Myanmar pushed up their attacking formation to find an equalizer because if they lost, they would have to stop. This left their defense with many gaps, allowing U19 Vietnam to make dangerous attacks. The focal point of the second half was Duc Chinh.

After missing a shot in a one-on-one situation with the opposing goalkeeper in the 55th minute and heading over the bar in the 65th minute, the striker from the PVF training center finally scored in the 77th minute. Number four exchanged passes with his teammates before running down to finish delicately into the far corner, forcing goalkeeper Thitsar Min to pick the ball out of the net for the second time. This goal helped Duc Chinh relieve a lot of pressure because he had previously missed a series of opportunities in the past three matches and had only scored one goal from the 11m mark.

Defeating U19 Myanmar, U19 Vietnam took the top spot in Group B with 10 points, scoring 10 goals and not conceding a single goal. Coach Hoang Anh Tuan's team avoided U19 Thailand, a team in high form, winning all in Group A, scoring 18 goals and conceding only two.

Thanks to the victory of U19 Vietnam over U19 Myanmar, U19 Malaysia got the second place in Group B, winning a ticket to the semi-finals. Before that, this team no longer had the right to decide and was very afraid that U19 Vietnam and U19 Myanmar would take the initiative to draw to join hands to enter the semi-finals.

According to VNE