Vietnam National Team and warning from Bangkok

The advantage of winning 2-1 away is not small, but if coach Park Hang-seo's students do not play well, they can still follow in Thailand's footsteps as usual. The door to the next round for Sven-Goran Eriksson's team is not much, but it is not impossible.

Three worst case scenarios

The worst scenario is that if Vietnam loses by more than two goals, the tragedy at Rajamangala Stadium (Bangkok) will be repeated at My Dinh National Stadium, where Vietnamese people witnessed the team losing many life-and-death matches. The probability of this happening is not high because coach Sven-Goran Eriksson does not have many players who can turn the match into a goal.

Warning from Bangkok. Photo: Internet

Coach Park Hang-seo and his team will still be eliminated if the Philippines wins by only 1 goal, but scores more than 2 goals (such as 3-2, 4-3, 5-4, ...) then they will also advance according to the away goal rule. No one believes that the defense of the host Vietnam, which has only conceded 1 goal in 5 matches, will let this happen.

If the Philippines brings the score to 1-2, the two teams will have to drag each other into extra time. With Article 7, Clause 3 of the AFF Cup 2018 Regulations newly added by the Organizing Committee, the away goal rule will still be counted in extra time, meaning that if the score continues to be 0-0, the two teams will enter the penalty shootout, and if they win in extra time and draw, Vietnam will be eliminated. This possibility is considered the highest in the bad situations at My Dinh Stadium.

Hanoi Appointment

Many people think that the dream of the 2018 AFF Cup Gold Cup has become bigger when Thailand "actively avoided Vietnam" in the final match. But in our opinion, in this AFF Cup, Thailand is not a scary opponent, to be exact, Malaysia is more dangerous.

Looking at the way coach Milovan Rajevac "conceded" to the "The Azkals" team in Bacolod or Thailand proactively parked the bus to draw 0-0 at the Bukit Jalil stadium in Malaysia and tried to decide the win - loss at home at Rajamangala stadium, we know that the "war elephants" are not as strong as before.

Not allowed to play in the 0-2 loss, Malaysia captain Zaquan Adha sent an invitation to the Vietnamese players to rematch the final. Photo: AFF

In the second leg of the semi-final, Thailand still played with a low formation, instead of pressing every time Malaysia had the ball, forcing creative midfielder Sanrawat to often move to the wing or drop deep to find the ball, leaving almost no impression.

Thailand was eliminated because Adisak Kraisorn failed to score the penalty accurately, but looking at the whole season, it would have been more reasonable if Malaysia or Vietnam had won the championship. Coach Milovan Rajevac did not have a clear tactical plan, not just a psychological situation of Kraisorn.

Compared to the match against Vietnam in the group stage, Malaysia coach Tan Cheng Hoe only made 3 changes, captain Zaquan Adha replaced striker Fikri. The left wing was guarded by Safawi and N.Naim, not Akhyar and Andik like in the match at My Dinh Stadium. A clear intention of Mr. Tan Cheng Hoe was "upper attack, lower defense" when Safawi attacked better than Akhyar and N.Naim focused on defense more than his senior Andik.

But the biggest change was on Rajamangala field, the winger duo Safawi and M.Sumareh "pulsed" much more strongly. It seemed that the naturalized player M.Sumareh had just finished the warm-up and played enthusiastically.

In addition, if at My Dinh Stadium they had 69% of the time with only 7 shots, 2 on target, at home at Bukit Jalil Stadium they made 23 shots, then in the second leg, Tan Cheng Hoe's team only had 5 shots but they scored 2 goals against Thailand.

The “Hanoi appointment” of Malaysian captain Zaquan Adha is therefore more interesting. At that time, Zaquan Adha will certainly be put on the field by Mr. Tan Cheng Hoe, but whether Van Quyet or he will lift the gold cup high, we still have to wait!