Coach Dinh The Nam: 'U19 Vietnam beat Thailand with bravery'

"The game was very good, and the players showed determination and confidence. When we entered the penalty shoot-out, we had luck, but we also had more courage to win," Vietnam U19 coach said after the game.

This afternoon's bronze medal match is Vietnam's seventh since the start of the competition, with a density of one every two days. As a result, the players are very tired and, therefore, Mr. Nan is satisfied that despite the tension of the game, the team still shows good spirit and willingness to complete the task.

Meet Thailand again in the game to save honors, but coach Dinh The Nam was surprised when he put the props of Van Truong, Quoc Viet, Dinh Bac and Hoang Canh on the bench. As a result, Vietnam was unable to create an overwhelming game against its opponents. In the 43rd minute, the Thai striker attacked sporadically and made defensive mistakes, opening the record.

According to Mr. Nan, after losing to Malaysia in the semi-final, the coaching staff carefully considered the choice of this personnel. Hoang Canh is injured and Van Truong, Quoc Viet and Dinh Bac need to rest as they play too much. Vietnam U19 coach explained: "We know that the team needs to work hard in the first half, wait for the pillar to play in the second half, and then the whole team will work hard to achieve better efficiency."

In fact, this is a reasonable calculation. At the beginning of the second half, after Guo Yue and Ding Bei came on, Vietnam played better and created more stages threatening each other's goal. In the 54th minute, Guoyue broke through the offside trap, accelerated and defeated the Thai goalkeeper face to face, and Vietnam equalized 1-1. NutiFood Academy's strikers therefore topped the top scorer list with five goals.

With seven games played in 15 days, the players of both teams were exhausted from the middle of the second half and often had to leave on the field or stretcher. Both sides didn't score again in the two main halves, so they had to decide the outcome through penalty kicks.

Vietnam's five shots were all successful, while goalkeeper Cao Wenping shone brilliantly and saved his opponent's shot in the third round, thus helping Vietnam win 5-3 and leave the game with bronze medal.