Football commentary Vietnam vs Thailand at the final of the second leg of ASEAN Cup

The first leg of the 2024 ASEAN Cup final took place with a scenario that not many people expected, because in any circumstance, Thailand is still considered to be better than Vietnam.

Vietnam did not need to control the ball too much but still created a series of opportunities against Thailand. In just 10 minutes, Xuan Son and Vi Hao had 3 chances to score, but could not take advantage.

In the second half, when Nguyen Xuan Son was calmer, he immediately scored the opening goal of the match in the 60th minute. Then, the striker born in 1997 stole the ball from Chalermsak and scored to widen the gap in the 73rd minute.

The problem of the Thai team is the individual mistakes of the players. But this story does not come from the level of Chalermsak and his teammates. Simply, the "War Elephants" were exhausted and did not have enough physical strength. From here, errors in ball handling appeared more often.

Coach Ishii Masatada was forced to leave three key players Weerathep, Supachok and Suphanat on the bench. The Japanese coach understood that he could not risk losing both the team and the net.

Perhaps, Mr. Ishii chose to explode at home with the best he could to win.

There won't be much to say about the technical aspects before the second leg of the final. The advantage of 1 goal belongs to the Vietnamese team. Coach Kim Sang-sik and his team know that they must focus all their efforts on defense before thinking about attacking and further, scoring.

Players with good physical condition and who are willing to stick around will be given opportunities. When Vi Hao does not play well, Mr. Kim will have a replacement plan. The Vietnam team focuses all its strength on the defense front.

Playing with concentration, doing a good job of protecting Dinh Trieu's goal and then launching quality counterattacks, the draw will belong to Vietnam. That's enough for a sleepless night in Bangkok.

The second leg of the 2024 ASEAN Cup final between Thailand and Vietnam will take place at 8:00 p.m. on January 5 at Rajamangala Stadium (Bangkok, Thailand).