The 1-1 draw between The Cong Viettel and PVF-CAND in round 24 of V.League 2025-2026 has left some controversy, especially the penalty situation for the away team at the beginning of the match.
In the 19th minute, a PVF-CAND player fell in the penalty area after the impact from behind by Dao Van Nam. The main referee, after consulting VAR, still maintained the decision to award a penalty to the away team. From the 11m spot, Alastair defeated goalkeeper Van Viet to open the score.
What made The Cong Viettel react was that television cameras showed that Ha Van Viet of PVF-CAND did not seem to have a collision before falling to the ground. The The Cong Viettel side assessed that the opposing player lost his position instead of being directly fouled.
In addition to the penalty, coach Popov's team also suggested considering the situation leading to the yellow card for Kyle Colonna.
Returning to the diễn biến of the match, after conceding an early goal, The Cong Viettel pushed up the squad and created great pressure in the remaining part of the match. In the 76th minute, Xuan Tien continued to become a bright spot when scoring the equalizer with a volley right in the penalty area after Tuan Tai's pass.
This is the second consecutive match that this young midfielder has made an important mark for the army team.
Talking to Lao Dong, the leader of The Cong Viettel team said: "The club requests the Organizing Committee of the tournament and the Vietnam Football Federation to reconsider the decisions of the refereeing team in this match.
The situation occurred in the 19th minute at a time when The Cong Viettel was controlling the game well.
This decision caused the team many difficulties in deploying their playing style and directly affected the goal of winning a favorable result in the match. In addition, the result also had a major impact on the race to compete for the position of The Cong Viettel in the rankings.
We believe that the above decisions have significantly affected the match situation and request VFF and the Organizing Committee to consider and re-evaluate objectively".
