SLNA, can it collect old debts?

(Baonghean.vn) - If talking about the first leg of V-League 2017, which match left the most regret, surely many SLNA players will talk about the round 13 match with Hanoi at Hang Day 'home field'.

They dropped a point at the last second of the match due to a marking mistake by young defender Sy Nam. And this Sunday afternoon (September 10), the opportunity to get revenge has come.

In the past, SLNA was Hanoi's nemesis, regardless of home or away matches, but now the wind has changed. In 20 meetings, there were 12 draws, home team SLNA won 3, away team Hanoi won 5. But in the last 5 meetings, the victory always belonged to the reigning V-League 2016 champion, Hanoi.

However, the fact that 4 of them only had a score of 1-0 shows that SLNA is a really tough opponent. This promises that SLNA's clash with Hanoi FC will be exciting even though the failures of U22 Vietnam at the 29th SEA Games have greatly affected the atmosphere on the pitch throughout the country. Improving Van Khanh's competitive mentality is also an issue that SLNA's coaching staff needs to pay attention to.

The owner of the house below

This is a match where the home team SLNA is considered the “underdog” even though they have the return of midfielder Vo Ngoc Toan and defender Pham Manh Hung. The 11-point gap and the quality of the squad, especially the foreign players of the two teams, speaks for themselves.

Ho Khac Ngoc (12)'s presence will enhance the interception capability. Photo: Dung Nguyen

In the first leg, Hanoi held the ball for 68% of the time, firing 11 shots towards Nguyen Manh's goal. With the central defenders Moses and Hung Dung, coach Chu Dinh Nghiem's ​​team almost controlled the midfield area with 531 passes, an accuracy rate of 86.5%. Meanwhile, the team from Nghe An under the leadership of 35-year-old "veteran" Van Vinh only had 275 passes and an accuracy rate of only 69.45%.

Facing SLNA, Coach Chu Dinh Nghiem has many players who can play the ball and have good personal skills such as Thanh Luong, Van Quyet, Quang Hai, causing Coach Duc Thang to choose a close-range style of play and fiercely compete for the ball.

Obviously, the aggressive style of play has discouraged many Hanoi players, including naturalized foreign player Hoang Vu Samson. The players of both teams know each other very well, not to mention Van Kien, Ngoc Duc and goalkeeper Van Cong are also players from Nghe An, so whichever team can take advantage of mistakes better will win.

In the first leg, when SLNA's defenders were tired of the "1,2,3 jump" game with foreign players and right-back Sy Nam was not marking well, Hoang Vu Samson scored a goal in the 90+5 minute. Surely coach Chu Dinh Nghiem would know the physical strength of SLNA's players to instruct his students to continuously hang the ball into the 16.5m area.

The weakness in aerial combat has long been the Achilles heel of the Nghe An team’s defense. In fact, if 4 minutes earlier, “veteran” Van Vinh had a good stretch, the home team would have lost first, not SLNA.

Despite losing the match 0-1, the central defenders Minh Duc and Van Khanh played with all their might. Goalkeeper Nguyen Manh even had to fly to block the ball from Hoang Vu Samson's boot.

Difference

Unlike the first leg, Ngoc Hai was pushed up to play as a central midfielder with Van Vinh because Khac Ngoc was banned for 3 yellow cards, but this time this midfielder will be in the starting lineup. If in the first leg, it was not until the 90+1 minute that striker Ho Phuc Tinh was allowed to enter the field, but now things are different.

Fans hope Phuc Tinh will enter the field and shine. Photo: Dung Nguyen

Although the attack line has the presence of foreign player Danko Kovacevic (1991) from Montenegro, the presence of this player seems to be only to stimulate domestic players to score, while Olaha seems to play back to control.Hoang Vu Samson.

If Tuan Tai is not ready after the forgettable SEA Games, Van Duc and Phuc Tinh will be given the opportunity. Phuc Tinh was the player who scored in the 1-1 draw with Hai Phong in a friendly match with Hai Phong at Thien Truong Stadium. Before that, SLNA had a friendly match with FLC Thanh Hoa at Vinh Stadium. As a result, the Nghe An team won 2-0 with goals from Ngoc Toan and Xuan Manh.

In the head-to-head stats, SLNA is the only team that is winning when scoring 23 goals against the away team, while that number for coach Chu Dinh Nghiem and his team is 22. Whether this number will change in the 21st head-to-head match or not, we have to wait for the brilliance of the veterans Minh Duc and Van Vinh! First of all, the home team SLNA must quickly break the precedent of a slow "start" after V-League breaks like before.

AT