{"id":11087,"date":"2026-03-31T22:05:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/?p=11087"},"modified":"2026-03-31T22:05:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T15:05:31","slug":"vietnam-deny-malaysia-their-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/vietnam-deny-malaysia-their-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnam deny Malaysia their redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Vietnam sealed a perfect AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia Qualifiers Final Round Group F campaign with a 3-1 win against Malaysia at Thien Truong Stadium in Nam Dinh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vietnam had already qualified for the finals after FIFA and AFC had taken action against their rivals for fielding ineligible players in the qualifiers. The reversal of their wins against Vietnam and Nepal had seen Vietnam take an unassailable lead in the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having lost 0-4 to Malaysia in their previous encounter, before it was overturned to a 3-0 win, Vietnam wanted to prove they were the kingpins of South-East-Asian football. As for Malaysia it was match that was to be their redemption after the ignominy of being sanctioned for falsifying the citizenship documentation of seven \u201cnaturalized\u201d players.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, Malaysia suffered more embarrassment, bowing out losers. Three headers secured Vietnam a comfortable win as they can start looking forward to a third successive appearance at the continental showpiece next January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vietnam didn\u2019t have to wait long to go in front, Duy Manh escaped Stuart Wilkin\u2019s marking in the sixth minute to head Truong Tien Anh\u2019s corner delivery past a helpless Ahmad Syihan Hazmi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Malaysia looked to fight back with Faisal Halim sent through on goal, with the forward chipping the ball over the advancing Nguyen Filip but just missing the gaping goalmouth before the Vietnam custodian got down low to save Wilkin\u2019s shot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The evenly fought contest saw the home side getting close to a second in the 32nd minute when Nguyen Hoang Duc found space 25 yards out but his rising shot found the crossbar instead of the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half saw Malaysia presented with the first opening through a set-piece in the 50th minute, Faisal\u2019s corner delivery found Harith Haiqal whose header had to be tipped over by Filip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A minute later, Vietnam doubled their advantage when Do Hang Hen\u2019s pinpoint cross was met by a Xuan Son (pic below) header which beat Ahmad Syihan at his near post. Ironically, Xuan Son or also known as Rafaelson, hails from Brazil and was naturalized to be eligible to play for Vietnam in November 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Xuan Son\u2019s aerial prowess was on show again in the 59th minute, climbing highest to thump home Tien Anh\u2019s cross from the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Endrick dos Santos came off the bench to pull a goal back for Malaysia, slotting home a penalty in the 77th minute but Vietnam comfortably saw out the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The day also saw Thailand qualifying for the Finals. Manuel Bihr\u2019s 89th minute header secured Thailand\u2019s berth as the eked out a 2-1 win over Turkmenistan in Bangkok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bihr nodded home from close range in the dying moments after the Thais had seen Teymur Charyyev cancel out Suphanan Bureerat\u2019s 15th minute opener with a long range strike on the hour mark.

The win takes Thailand into top spot, climbing above a Turkmenistan side that only needed to draw in Rajamangala Stadium to progress after securing a 3-1 win over the Thais in their previous meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Maldives came from behind to defeat Timor-Leste 2-1 in their concluding Group A tie. It was Maldives first points while Timor-Leste suffered their fifth defeat in six matches. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bhutan came from behind to secure a 2-1 victory against Brunei Darussalam in their concluding Group B tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Singapore, who had already qualified for the Finals, signed off on their successful campaign in Group C campaign with an 1-0 win against Bangladesh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka closed out their campaign in Group D in impressive style cruising to a 3-1 win over hosts Chinese Taipei at Taipei Municipal Stadium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Myanmar defeated Pakistan 2-1 to conclude their Round Group E campaign on a positive note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laos concluded their campaign with a 1-0 win against Nepal in their Group E tie at the Lao National Stadium.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vietnam sealed a perfect AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia Qualifiers Final Round Group F campaign with a 3-1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-11087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo.jpg",1200,800,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo-1024x683.jpg",640,427,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo.jpg",1200,800,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo.jpg",1200,800,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/AFC-Asian-Cup-Saudi-Arabia-2027_Logo.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11087"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11090,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11087\/revisions\/11090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}