Malaysia stunned Vietnam with a 4-2 victory in Hanoi on Thursday to book their place in the final of the AFF Suzuki Cup, winning the tie 5-4 on aggregate.
Having lost their semi-final first-leg 2-1 at Shah Alam last Sunday, Malaysia were underdogs to go through but they pulled off an incredible result that stunned the 40,000 Vietnamese fans into silence at My Dinh Stadium.
Malaysia, the 2010 champions, face Thailand in the final with the first leg in Bangkok on December 17 before the teams head to Kuala Lumpur for the decider on December 20.
A pulsating first half saw Malaysia go 4-1 up and put the match beyond Vietnam thanks to a wealth of away goals. Vietnam mounted a spirited fight back in the second half but it was not to be their night.
“What can I say? We had four chances and we got four goals. Vietnam came at us strongly in the second half but we defended well,” said Malaysian coach Dollah Salleh.
“This is football. We made a mistake in Shah Alam but today we did not. I am surprised Vietnam made mistakes so we take this.
“I did not expect we would score four goals. I am very proud of our players and hope this performance can carry us through to the final.”
The outcome was a repeat of the 2010 semi-final when Malaysian beat Vietnam 2-0 on aggregate.
“We played a terrible game,” lamented Vietnam coach Toshiya Miura.
“In the first half they were more aggressive and we did not handle that. I don’t think it was because the players already thought they had qualified for the final.”
It was in the fourth minute that Malaysia took the lead following a penalty by Safiq Rahim. He scored with his first effort, slipping the ball to the right of goalkeeper Tran Nguyen Manh, but the referee forced him to retake and he proceeded to score again with the same shot.
The penalty had been awarded after forward Indra Putra Mahayuddin had been brought down in the middle by Que Ngoc Hai as he charged towards the goal.
Just after the 15-minute mark Malaysia found the net again when Nguyen Manh came out of his box to clear the ball but Norshahrul Idlan Talaha nicked the ball away and slotted it home.
In the 22nd minute, star striker Le Cong Vinh gave Vietnam hope when he slotted home a penalty after Amri Yahyah had put the star striker in a head lock.
But just before the half-hour mark Malaysia went 3-1 up when Indra Putra broke down the left and sent in a cross that hit Vietnam defender Dinh Tien Thanh and flew into the goal.
There was further misery for Vietnam two minutes before half-time Shukor Adnan nodded in from close range after Fadhli Shas had knocked down a corner.
As expected in the second half the Vietnamese went on the offensive while their opponents set out to defend their considerable advantage.
Vietnam mounted attack after attack and it paid off when in the 79th minute Cong Vinh got his second of the game with a typically thunderous strike. It gave his country an outside chance but the two-goal deficit proved to be too big a gap as Malaysia advanced to the AFF Suzuki Cup final for the third time.
Source: AFFSuzukicup.com
