VOV.VN - U23 Vietnam will take on U23 Malaysia in a semi-final match of the ongoing 31st Southeast Asian Games after the latter and U23 Cambodia shared point in a 2-2 draw and U23 Thailand beat U23 Timor Leste 1-0 on May 16.
The Vietnam vs Malaysia match is scheduled to take place at Viet Tri Stadium in Phu Tho province at 7pm on May 19, while the other semi-final match between Thailand and Indonesia is slated for 4pm of the same day at Thien Truong Stadium in Nam Dinh.
Malaysia performed unsteadily at the U23 ASEAN Football Federation championships and at SEA Games. They lost Vietnam 4-3 and 2-1 in semi-finals of the 2003 and 2005 SEA Games respectively, but overwhelmed Vietnam 1-0 in the final match at the 2009 SEA Games. They then lost 5-1 to Vietnam in a group match at the 2015 SEA Games, and even finished third after Myanmar and Cambodia in a group at the 2019 SEA Games.
Park Hang-seo, chief coach of the U23 Vietnam squad, said that he had not watched live Malaysia play in group matches, but through TV, and they were well organized.
He assured that U23 Vietnam would try to improve their skills to pass the semi-finals and reach the final.
U23 Vietnam and I will strive to have the best performance, he said.
Meanwhile, several Malaysian outlets reported that taking on Vietnam – the defending SEA Games champions – would be a tough task for Malaysia.
However, coach Brad Maloney said he was not too worried about the coming clash with hosts Vietnam, because either Vietnam (Group A winners) or Indonesia (second place winners) were all powerful. He expected a good result for Malaysia on May 19.
