Convincing victory over Malaysia gives U23 Vietnam a wide open door to the quarter-finals of the U23 Asian Cup.

On the evening of April 20, the U23 Vietnam team will face U23 Malaysia in the final round of the U23 Asia. This is a very important match, because in the last round of the group stage, U23 Vietnam will have to face a very strong opponent, U23 Uzbekistan.

In theory, a draw would more or less give U23 Vietnam an advantage, but still leave many potential risks, so right from the first minutes of the match, coach Hoang Anh Tuan's students rushed to attack.

The first chance was created by U23 Vietnam, striker Nguyen Van Tung tried to aim for the far corner and shot the ball out. However, the linesman raised the offside flag for the Hanoi FC striker. In the following minutes, the two teams played tit for tat, from an attack on the left wing, Van Khang crossed the ball into the penalty area for Minh Khoa to head in beautifully. It was a pity that the U23 Vietnam player's aerial attack was excellently blocked by goalkeeper Azim Al Amin.

In the 39th minute, U23 Vietnam was awarded a free kick from a distance of about 22m. Khuat Van Khang took a left-footed shot, the ball was so swerving and tricky that goalkeeper Bin Kamaruddin could not block it. The goal reminded us of Quang Hai's "rainbow snow" masterpiece at the 2018 U23 Asian Cup finals. The score was 1-0 in favor of U23 Vietnam.

The game was slightly better for U23 Vietnam in 2/3 of the first half when the "Golden Star Warriors" controlled more of the ball and had more shots. The pressure on the U23 Malaysia goal continuously forced the opposing team's players to commit fouls and receive yellow cards.

In the second half, coach Hoang Anh Tuan made some personnel adjustments. One of them was the best player of the match against U23 Kuwait - Bui Vi Hao. Vi Hao continued to show his talent when coming on from the bench, when he and Van Truong created a sharp counterattack. Van Truong dropped the ball down for Vi Hao to move into the opponent's penalty area. The Malaysian center back wearing the number 3 shirt made a foul by pushing Vi Hao from behind. After consulting VAR, the referee awarded U23 Vietnam a penalty.

On the 11m penalty spot, Vo Hoang Minh Khoa made no mistake to raise the score to 2-0 for U23 Vietnam in the 60th minute. In the following minutes, despite great efforts to shoot towards each other's goal, both U23 Vietnam and U23 Malaysia could not score more goals. In the end, U23 Vietnam won 2-0 against U23 Malaysia.

This victory helps U23 Vietnam temporarily maintain the top position in Group D with 6 absolute points after 2 matches. As for U23 Malaysia, they have officially stopped at the group stage.

If the match between U23 Uzbekistan and U23 Kuwait ends in a draw or Uzbekistan wins, U23 Vietnam will advance to the quarterfinals. In case U23 Kuwait wins U23 Uzbekistan, we will still have to wait until the final match to know the owners of the 2 tickets to the quarterfinals in Group D.

On April 23, in the final match, U23 Vietnam will face U23 Uzbekistan, the strongest team in group D./.