Vietnam national football team led by coach Park Hang-seo shared a point with Singapore in the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Mitsubishi Electric Cup (Mitsubishi Cup), the “World Cup in Southeast Asia” , and maintained the leadership in the group.
On the 30th, Vietnam drew 0-0 with Singapore in the third leg of Group B of the group stage of the 2022 Mitsubishi Cup held at the Jalan Besar stadium in Singapore.
Vietnam, who beat Laos 6-0 on the 21st and Malaysia 3-0 on the 27th, recorded 7 points with 2 wins and 1 draw, leading Group B.
Vietnam and Singapore amassed 7 points with 2 wins and 1 draw in 3 matches side by side, and Vietnam (+9) kept their lead ahead of Singapore (+3) on goal difference.
Vietnam, who won the tournament in 2018 under coach Park Hang-seo’s management, are aiming to regain the top spot on stage capping a five-year partnership with coach Park.
In this competition, 10 teams competed in two groups to play the group stage, and the first and second place of each group advanced to the semi-finals to determine the winner through a tournament.
In group A compete Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Brunei and in group B Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar and Laos.
Malaysia, led by coach Pangon Kim, is in third place in Group B (W2, L1, 6 points), after Vietnam and Singapore.
On this day, Vietnam led the game with over 70% ball possession, but were unable to break through the iron wall of Singapore’s defence.
Singapore faced unexpected change when Irhan Pandi who started on the front row suffered a knee injury late in the first half and passed to Shawal Anuar early in the second half, but defensively stalled Vietnam’s offensive completely.
Vietnam started the second half using substitutes Nguyen Quang Hai and Phan Van Duc, after which the balance at 0-0 was not broken, so Vietnam also put forward Nguyen Tien Linh and midfielder Nguyen Hoang Duc in the 13th minute of the second half to aim for a goal.
However, in the 20th minute of the second half, Thien Linh’s right-footed shot from distance was blocked by Singapore goalkeeper Hasan Sunny’s save, and in the 38th minute of the second half, Hoang Duc’s left-footed shot from distance hit the post, and failed to score a single goal.
Vietnam had 16 shots on the day, but only 4 effective shots, and Singapore recorded 3 shots (1 effective shot) focusing fully on defense.
Eui-Young Song, a Korean naturalized player from Singapore, replaced starting winger Paris Ramley early in the second half and helped the team earn points by wandering around the pitch.
Meanwhile, in Group A, reigning champions Thailand lead (7 points, +9 goals), and coach Shin Tae-yong’s Indonesia is in second place (7 points, +8 goals).
Indonesia will face their last match against the Philippines on the 2nd of next month.
/yunhap news