U19 Song Lam Nghe An - U19 Viettel: 'Dragons fight, tigers fight'

According to the assessment of assistant coach Le Manh Hung (U19 SLNA), U19 Viettel is a strong candidate for the championship in this year's tournament, possessing a quality squad and a methodical playing style. The achievement of 8 wins in the qualifying round, where there was the presence of U19 PVF, U19 Binh Dinh, U19 Dak Lak and U19 Hai Nam Vinh Phuc, is a clear proof of the strength of coach Nguyen Thanh Hai and his team.

Viettel U19 players are "winning like a piece of cake" at the 2022 National U19 Championship. Photo: Viet Dinh

In the final round, U19 Viettel continued to fall into the group (group A) considered "death" with the presence of the home team and also the defending champion U19 PVF, U19 HAGL and U19 Long An. However, the students of coach Nguyen Thanh Hai did not encounter many difficulties to win all 9 points. Specifically, U19 Viettel defeated U19 HAGL, U19 PVF and U19 Long An with the scores of 1 - 0, 2 - 1 and 2 - 0 respectively.

U19 Viettel's opponent in the quarter-final match was U19 Saigon, the team ranked 3rd in Group C. And it took less than 46 minutes for U19 Viettel to "finish" their opponent with 2 goals from Dang Tuan Phong (minute 25) and Doan The Phong (minute 46). It can be seen that U19 Viettel is a comprehensive offensive and defensive team. In addition, coach Nguyen Thanh Hai's team also had 1 day more rest than U19 Song Lam Nghe An.

That does not mean that coach Dinh Van Dung and his team are in a weaker position compared to U19 Viettel. In terms of strength, Dinh Xuan Tien and his teammates are not inferior to their young colleagues on U19 Viettel in terms of expertise and battle experience. The presence of Dinh Xuan Tien, Nguyen Van Bach, Ho Van Cuong and Phan Xuan Dai in the squad is enough to make any opponent afraid.

The joy of U19 Song Lam Nghe An players after defeating U19 Thanh Hoa in the quarter-finals. Photo courtesy of Hai Hoang

In addition, on the bench ofU19 Song Lam Nghe Anare three very famous coaches at the youth level of Vietnam, including: Head coach Dinh Van Dung (who led U16 Vietnam and U20 Vietnam), assistant coach Tran Quang Dung and goalkeeper coach Le Manh Hung. The outstanding achievements of the youth teams of Song Lam Nghe An training center in the past have more or less had the mark of the 3 coaches mentioned above.

Don't forget that to reach the semi-finals, U19 Song Lam Nghe An also went through a very proud journey. Up to now, coach Dinh Van Dung and his team have not lost any matches since the qualifying round of the 2022 National U19 Championship kicked off (7 wins and 3 draws), only behind the achievement of 12 consecutive wins of U19 Viettel (8 matches in the qualifying round and 12 matches in the final round).

In short, in all aspects, U19 Song Lam Nghe An and 19 Viettel are worthy opponents. Therefore, it is likely that the match between the two teams will have to be resolved after a series of risky penalties./.