Coach Kiatisuk admitted that HAGL was lucky to win against SLNA, Coach Quang Truong complained about the referee.

In the match at Pleiku Stadium, SLNA were the ones to take the early lead thanks to Felipe Martins' goal, but theThai Ba Sangreceived a red card in the 36th minute, making it impossible for the Nghe An team to maintain the score. Minh Vuong and Van Toan scored in turn to help HAGL come back 2-1, earning their first victory of the season.

In the press conference, HAGL coach Kiatisuk commented: “Today, the match was not easy for HAGL but fortunately SLNA lost 1 person. If SLNA did not lose a person, HAGL might have drawn or lost. I know that is football, no match is easy.

Today we got 3 points and saw Mr. Duc smile, it's been a long time since I've seen him smile like that. We will work harder, we will try to get the best results for the fans."

Thai Ba Sang's red card caused all of SLNA's plans to fall apart. Photo: VPF

HAGL's head coach added: "HAGL won but I'm not too happy because there are still many things to do with the team. In the previous match, we lost to Saigon FC. The players bowed their heads because they didn't get any points, but that's football. Sometimes they play well but don't get any points. Today, the team won 3 points, the players are more confident and motivated.

I respect SLNA a lot. Their two foreign strikers are very fast. If they play with 2 central defenders, there will be problems, so I arranged a formation with 3 central defenders (Kim Dong-su, Memovic and Huu Tuan). When I became HAGL coach, I had to look at the defense, not just the attack. HAGL did not have a problem with the attack, but last season they lost a lot of goals due to defensive errors. The reason I came here was to protect the home team's goal first. It is not always possible like today, conceding the first goal and then equalizing. Defense and attack must therefore be balanced."

On SLNA's side, coach Ngo Quang Truong reacted quite harshly to Thai Ba Sang's second yellow card: "Thai Ba Sang's red card completely changed our plan, especially the center back position. It was very difficult to adjust in that situation. We accepted having to bring in a foreign center back, pull Peter Samuel down and only play 1 center forward. The match's developments may be right or wrong compared to what I expected."

"You guys saw how I reacted. I'm really not satisfied with everything the referee decided. I'm not justifying my players' actions like that. You guys know that when the referee has made a decision, we can't do anything else. It's no wonder we got red cards in two consecutive matches and had to play with one less player. The problem lies in the defense.

Coach Ngo Quang Truong reacted strongly. Photo: VPF

"Both Ba Sang and Van Khanh will be absent in the next match, so we have to try to adapt. Football has things that don't go our way," SLNA's head coach shared.

In the case of foreign players,Coach Quang Truongexplained: "Igor Jelic has just finished quarantine, so I didn't let him play right away, but the situation forced me to take the risk. The foreign players of the first team and the first two matches were considered failures. We have to help them improve so they understand the team better. My foreign striker really wanted to score to increase the score, but he had technical errors. His ability is only that much, so it's hard to blame. If there were more goals, the game would be different."

Playing with one less man, SLNA lost to HAGL in Pleiku

(Baonghean.vn) - Playing with one more player for most of the match against SLNA, HAGL had their first victory in V.League 2021 when they came from behind to defeat the Nghe An team at home in Pleiku in round 2.