Vietnam beat Indonesia to reach ASEAN footbal final

Vietnam secured their ticket to the AFF Cup final on Monday, with on-form striker Nguyen Tien Linh’s outstanding performance firing Indonesia’s net twice.

The Golden Star Warriors under Park Hang-seo showed their quality at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi after they were held to a 0-0 draw three days earlier in Jakarta in their first-leg semifinal.

Three minutes into the second-leg match, Tien Linh fired with a middle-range shot to push the hosts ahead. The real-time aggregate score was 1-0 in favor of the Golden Stars, and Indonesia started to play aggressively immediately. Park’s side managed to deny their rivals’ attacks until break time.

Just two minutes after the break, from Vietnam captain Do Hung Dung's corner kick, Tien Linh’s header doubled the gap, and the forward recorded five goals in the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 like Thailand striker Teerasil Dangda until Monday.

Vietnam’s 2-0 gap over Shin Tae-yong's side remained unchanged until the final whistle. This is the first time for the two-time champions to beat Indonesia in the Asean tournament after 26 years. In the ongoing competition, Vietnam have kept their net totally clean after five matches.

Shin and his squad came to Hanoi with the hope of beating the hosts to reach a second successive final in the regional competition. In January 2022, they and Thailand were the finalists in the AFF Cup 2020 like but the Thais beat them to hold up the trophy.

Vietnam will face either Malaysia or Thailand in the first-leg final in Hanoi on January 13. The second-leg final will be held on January 16.

Defending champions Thailand lost 0-1 to the Malay Tigers on Saturday in the first leg of their semi-final on Saturday in Kuala Lumpur. The War Elephants’ duty is to edge out Malaysia on Tuesday in Thailand in their title campaign.