Thailand emerged victorious in the finals of the U19 Southeast Asian Football Championship Wednesday, beating Australia in a penalty shootout after end-of-play scores were tied 2-2.

Meeting Vietnam again after a 0-2 defeat in the group stage, Malaysia chose to focus on defense and play counterattack. The strategy did not work, however, as they failed to avoid the second loss in eight days to the home team.

The Vietnamese players began dominating the match early on, and were a brace up at half-time, striker Dinh Bao and midfielder Quoc Phuong doing the scoring.

Down by two goals, the flustered Malaysian players lost their cool as well as the services of captain Fazail, sent off with a red card in the 62nd minute after leaving the ball rolling to kick Van Thanh.

Shortly after, Thamil Aruso was sent off for overreacting to referee Apisit Aonrak.

Their departure gave the Vietnamese more openings, and about five minutes later, Minh Tuan’s header wrapped up an easy win for the hosts.

In the finals that took place later, Thailand played superbly in a match that seesawed until the very end of playtime. Natthawut Khamrin scored the opener for Thailand after the 69th minute before Dylan Mcgowan equalized the score for Australia in the final seconds of the normal 90 minutes.

Then Adisak Krisoh helped Thailand to take the lead again in the first half of the extra time but Jared Lum made it 2-2 right before the final whistle.

In the penalty shootout, Thailand beat Australia 3-2, with Thai hero of the day, goalkeeper Ukrit Wongmeena, making three wonderful saves.

Reported by Quang Huy