National U21 Finals: Viettel 'sows sorrow' for SLNA

(Baonghean.vn) - Having eliminated strong opponents like Hanoi and PVF to reach the semi-finals of the 2017 National U21 Football Tournament, but bad luck forced coach Dinh Van Dung and his team to see Viettel play in the final.

As expected, Viettel quickly showed their class with an early goal in the 6th minute. It was an extremely smart free kick by player Hoang Duc of the red team.

As if awakening, SLNA continuously deployed fast passes with the mobility of the trio born in 1996: Dinh Chau, Xuan Manh and Van Duc. Finally, the efforts of U21 SLNA were rewarded. In the 34th minute, Phan Van Duc, a new discovery of SLNA in the 2017 season, headed the ball accurately after a cross from his teammate, helping U21 SLNA equalize the score.

Phan Van Duc and his teammates had a quite successful season with U21 SLNA and SLNA first team. Photo: Organizing Committee

In the rest of the first half, the match was exciting and extremely tense with many fierce and fiery moments. However, U21 SLNA and U21 Viettel had to accept entering the break with a score of 1-1.

In the second half, Viettel continued to show that they are an extremely difficult team to play against. Center back Trong Dai, with his blocking role, did a great job of recovering the ball and blocking attacks from the center. Meanwhile, SLNA continued to diligently deploy the ball from the two wings. However, an extremely balanced game ended in a 1-1 draw.

This result brought U21 SLNA and U21 Viettel into a series of penalty kicks full of luck. After players Van Duc, Xuan Manh, Van Viet and Van Doan successfully executed their kicks, right at the decisive kick, Quang Dat regretfully hit the crossbar.

Losing to Viettel 4-5 on penalties, SLNA accepted to stop at the National U21 Finals and received a bronze medal. As for U21 Viettel, luck helped coach Hai Bien and his team win tickets to the final match. Viettel's opponent is the winner between B. Binh Duong and HAGL.

Although they stopped at the semi-finals, coach Dinh Van Dung and his team demonstrated a scientific style of play, spirit and bravery of the team that has won this tournament 5 times. And only bad luck made the Nghe team stop. In particular, the mark of players such as Bui Dinh Chau, Phan Van Duc and Pham Xuan Manh was very strong./.

Trung Kien