Foreign defender scores, Song Lam Nghe An draws dramatically on Thanh Hoa field

In the 4th minute, the home team Thanh Hoa opened the scoring. Starting from a cross by Trinh Van Loi, striker Hoang Vu Samson comfortably headed the ball past goalkeeper Van Tien. In this situation, SLNA's defense lacked concentration.

After conceding the goal, the Nghe An team continued to attack and continuously attack to find an equalizer. During most of the first half, the ball control rate was up to 57% but SLNA only had 2 notable shots towards Thanh Hoa's goal. The most regrettable was Dinh Tien's miss when facing goalkeeper Thanh Diep in the extra minutes.

The two teams entered the break with a 1-0 advantage in favor of the Thanh team.

Thanh Hoa Club took an early lead over SLNA in the match that took place on the afternoon of October 25. Photo: Phan Tung

In the second half, defenders Mai Sy Hoang and Ho Tuan Tai were sent onto the field by SLNA's coaching staff to replace Nguyen Sy Nam and Ho Phuc Tinh in the hope of improving the attack. In the 54th minute, Dinh Tien continued to have a very good shot from a distance, but Thanh Hoa's goalkeeper reacted and successfully blocked it.

Although not really dominating, Thanh Hoa still had chances to respond. In the 62nd minute, Thanh Hoa almost had a second goal when Dinh Tung finished close range into an empty net. Fortunately for Van Tien, center back Ba Sang was able to retreat and clear the ball on the goal line.

In the following minutes, SLNA continuously had opportunities to shorten the score. After Ho Tuan Tai's header was not strong enough in the 63rd minute, Bui Dinh Chau continued to have opportunities in the penalty area but Thanh Hoa's defender promptly cleared the danger.

Foreign player Ewonde is a steel shield in Thanh Hoa's defense. Photo: Phan Tung

At this time, coach Quang Truong continued to send young midfielder Tran Ngoc Anh in to replace Cao Xuan Thang. Although SLNA had more shots, they were wasting many opportunities. In a corner kick in the 69th minute, Gustavo beat goalkeeper Thanh Diep but his header went wide of the post.

In the 77th minute, foreign player Peter Samuel passed the ball to Ho Tuan Tai, unfortunately, the striker born in 1995 of SLNA finished too hastily and the ball went over the bar. In the 80th minute, SLNA was awarded a favorable free kick from about 18m away but the ball hit the wall. SLNA was awarded 3 favorable direct free kicks but failed to take advantage of them all.

With less than 10 minutes left in the match, Vuong Quoc Trung was sent onto the field to replace Ho Sy Sam. While SLNA was still busy attacking, the score was almost 2-0 for Thanh Hoa when Trong Phu's connecting kick sent the ball just wide of the post in the 88th minute.

Center back Gustavo Santos scored a last minute goal for SLNA. Photo: Phan Tung

In the third minute of extra time, center back Gustavo Santos became the hero for SLNA when he jumped high to head the ball home from a corner kick to tie the score at 1-1. And 1-1 was also the final score of the match. This result helped SLNA gain 22 points and maintain 10th place, while Thanh Hoa ranked 11th with 20 points.

At Thien Truong Stadium, DNH Nam Dinh and Hai Phong played an exciting match with spectacular score chases. In the end, Hai Phong FC won 3-2 against the home team with goals from Adriano Schmidt, Diego Silva and Joseph Mpande.

This result helped the Hai Phong team stay in the league with one round to spare. In the match at Tam Ky Stadium, Quang Nam surprisingly defeated SHB Da Nang with a score of 3-1, thereby keeping the hope of staying in the league until the last round when having 15 points. Thus, Nam Dinh (17 points) must have a favorable result against SLNA at Vinh Stadium in the last round of Group B to stay in V.League.

STARTING LINEUP

Thanh Hoa:TM Thanh Diep, Dinh Tung, Minh Tung, Balic, Huu Dung, Thanh Long, Van Loi, Thai Binh, Ewonde Epassi, Van Hoi, Samson.

SLNA:TM Van Tien, Dinh Chau, Sy Sam, Xuan Manh, Phuc Tinh, Dinh Tien, Xuan Thang, Sy Nam Samuel, Ba Sang, Santos Gustavo.

V.League 2020 return leg: Potential risks from 'alliances'

(Baonghean.vn) - The special format of the 2020 V.League helps shorten the tournament's organization time, ensuring many other plans for Vietnamese football, but this also makes many teams no longer have clear goals in phase II. Among them, there are teams considered "alliance".