At Thien Truong Stadium, Nam Dinh suffered a 2-4 defeat to Ho Chi Minh City Police in a match where the away team played explosively in the first half. Despite being highly rated with home advantage and impressive form of Xuan Son, the Nam Dinh team continuously made mistakes in defense.
In the 18th minute, Utzig opened the score for Ho Chi Minh City Police after a counter-attack originating from Ti Phong's mistake of passing back. Just 5 minutes later, Matheus Felipe doubled the score for the away team from a messy situation in the penalty area. In the 37th minute, Lee Williams headed to increase the score to 3-0 before Gia Bao closed the first half with a fourth goal from a corner kick.
Being deeply led, Nam Dinh strongly rose up in the second half. In the 71st minute, Xuan Son made Thien Truong's audience explode with a beautiful bicycle kick shortening the score to 1-4. The naturalized striker continued to leave his mark in the 79th minute when he stole the ball after an error by the opponent's defense before assisting Hoang Anh to score. However, the home team's efforts were not enough to prevent Ho Chi Minh City Police from winning a ticket to the final.
In the remaining semi-final, Ninh Binh defeated The Cong Viettel with a score of 4-1 at home. Despite being put under pressure by the opponent in the early minutes, the ancient capital team showed efficiency in counter-attack situations.
In the 15th minute, Friday assisted Gia Hung to open the score for Ninh Binh. Before the first half ended, Hoang Duc doubled the gap after a quick combination also originating from Friday's pass.
In the second half, The Cong Viettel tried to push up the squad to find an equalizer and Lucao narrowed the score to 1-2 from the penalty spot in the 85th minute. However, just a few minutes later, Bao Toan had a beautiful solo goal to increase the score to 3-1 for Ninh Binh. In injury time, Friday directly scored, sealing a 4-1 victory for the home team.
With this result, the 2025-2026 National Cup final will be a showdown between Ho Chi Minh City Police and Ninh Binh.
