Vietnam won the 2024 Asean Cup championship

The second leg final between host Thailand and Vietnam took place on the evening of January 5, at Rajamangala Stadium.

In the first leg of the final, the Vietnamese team defeated Thailand 2-1. This gave a slight advantage to coach Kim Sang-sik's team. The Vietnamese team really wants to make history again right on the Rajamangala fire pit.

However, this is not easy, because when returning home and being cheered by more than 40,000 spectators at Rajamangala Stadium, Thailand promises to show a very different face, aiming to level the gap after the first leg, to win the Southeast Asian championship for the third consecutive time.

And as expected, as soon as the starting whistle blew, the Thai players quickly took control of the game and put pressure on the Vietnamese team's field.

To limit the opponent's strength, coach Kim Sang-sik chose a defensive counter-attacking tactic to counter. And that worked, as the Vietnamese team opened the score in the 8th minute of the match.

Starting from a free kick in the middle of the field, Xuan Manh dribbled the ball into the Thai penalty area. Khemdee, who was marking Xuan Son, failed to block the ball, creating an opportunity for Tuan Hai to slip past the opponent player and then lift the ball over goalkeeper Patiwat to score in his first starting match for Vietnam at the 2024 ASEAN Cup.

After conceding the goal, the Thai team raised their formation to look for an equalizer. Under tremendous pressure from the home team, Doan Ngoc Tan made a mistake that allowed Thailand to equalize in the 28th minute of the match.

Midfielder Ngoc Tan made a mistake near the home team's penalty area, creating an assist for Ben Davis to unleash a classy right-footed curler, sending the ball into the bottom corner, leaving Dinh Trieu helpless.

After the equalizer, the spirit of the Thai players rose, the home team put a lot of pressure on the Vietnamese team's field. However, with a calm playing style, the students of coach Kim Sang-sik maintained the score 1-1 in the first 45 minutes.

In the second half, Thailand continued to put great pressure on the away team. In the 56th minute, Vietnam's defense fell into chaos after an attack by the opponent. A series of mistakes were made but fortunately the ball did not go into the net thanks to Thanh Chung's efforts.

However, in the 64th minute, the Thai team scored a goal in an unsightly way. Because in the previous situation, a Vietnamese player proactively kicked the ball out of bounds so that the medical staff could take care of Hoang Duc. However, instead of returning the ball in the spirit of fair play, Thailand continued to hold the ball and put pressure on him, and Supachok fired a shot from about 30m into the far corner, raising the score to 2-1. The Korean referee had to spend a few minutes explaining to the players of both teams about the validity of the goal, it was just not pretty.

However, after scoring the goal, the Thai team faced a big disadvantage when they lost a man. Weerathep pulled Quang Hai's shirt when our captain was in a position to organize a counterattack. The referee was very determined to show the second yellow card to this player, which meant that Vietnam was playing with one more man.

With the advantage, Vietnam organized many dangerous counter-attacks towards the opponent's goal.

In the 82nd minute, Quang Hai passed the ball in the middle, then passed it down the left side of the penalty area for Tuan Hai to curl into the far corner. The ball rolled towards the goal but center-back Pansa tried to clear it, accidentally sending it into his own net. The second leg score was 2-2 and Vietnam still led 4-3 overall.

In the final minutes, Thailand put all their squad into attack and suffered a bitter defeat. Thailand's corner kick was cleared by Vietnam and Thailand immediately organized a counterattack. The Thai goalkeeper then went up high to join the situation so the goal was completely empty and Hai Long boldly shot low from the middle of the field, the ball slowly rolled into the net amid the enthusiasm of tens of millions of Vietnamese people.

Winning 5-3 after two matches, the Vietnamese team officially won the 2024 Asean Cup championship.

In addition, the Golden Star Warriors also won the tournament's outstanding titles including: Best Player (Xuan Son), Top Scorer (Xuan Son) and Best Goalkeeper (Dinh Trieu).