Dramatic win over Australia, Vietnam futsal team wins ticket to final

On the afternoon of November 8, the Vietnamese futsal team faced the Australian team in the semi-finals of the 2024 Southeast Asian Futsal Championship.

Previously, coach Diego Giustozzi and his team had a comeback victory against host Thailand, and entered the semi-final match against Australia, as group A winners.

Meanwhile, Australia only had 1 win in the group stage. In terms of history, in the last 3 times they met, the Vietnamese futsal team won 2 and lost only 1 match against Australia.

Entering the match, the Vietnamese futsal team entered the match confidently, however, Australia was the team to score first. From a direct attack by Australia, Sewell was in the right place at the right time to tap the ball into the net from close range to open the score for the match.

Not stopping there, in the 19th minute, from a left corner kick, Guerreiro volleyed for number 7 Rogan to run in and score the second goal against the Vietnamese futsal team.

Trailing by 2 goals, the Vietnamese futsal team tried their best to attack in the second half. At the 30th minute, the team of coach Diego Giustozzi (Argentina) decided to use power-play (using all 5 players to attack, leaving the goal open). The turning point of the match took place from this point.

Nguyen Da Hai was brought down by an Australian player in the penalty area, referee Moon Dae Sung (Korean) awarded the Vietnamese futsal team a penalty. From the penalty spot, Tu Minh Quang successfully kicked the ball, narrowing the gap to 1-2 for the Vietnamese futsal team.

In the 36th minute, it was Da Hai who scored a close-range shot to equalize 2-2 for coach Diego Giustozzi's team. However, just a few seconds later, Tran Nhat Trung scored an own goal, accidentally helping Australia score a goal to increase the score to 3-2.

In the 38th minute, Da Hai had another tap-in, leveling the score at 3-3 for the Vietnamese futsal team. This score forced both sides to play extra time.

In the 46th minute, the first minute of the second extra time, Thinh Phat had a rare header in futsal, raising the score to 4-3 for coach Giustozzi's team. But in the 49th minute, Australia equalized 4-4 thanks to Patrick Lynch.

It seemed like the match would have to go into a penalty shootout, but in the 50th minute, the last minute of the second extra time, the Australian player committed his 7th foul since the beginning of the second half.

In futsal, if a team commits more than 5 fouls in each half, from the 6th foul, the offending team will be awarded a 10m penalty. Fouls in the 2nd half will be accumulated until the end of the 2nd extra time of the knockout round matches. This means that the Vietnamese futsal team was awarded this penalty kick, after Australia's 7th foul.

From the 10m penalty spot, Thinh Phat successfully executed, scoring the winning goal 5-4 for the Vietnam futsal team.

With this win, the Vietnamese futsal team will play the final match, against the winner of the Thailand vs. Indonesia match.

The final will take place at 8:00 a.m. on November 10 in Thailand./.