Vietnam labored into the U19 Southeast Asian football championship semifinals after coming from behind to beat Myanmar 3-1 at the Thong Nhat Stadium Thursday.

As expected, the Vietnamese team had a difficult time at the very beginning with the visitors keeping close whenever the former had possession of the ball.

In general, the Vietnamese team was superior but failed to dominate the match like they did in the 2-0 win over Malaysia on Tuesday. All their attacks were stopped well outside the penalty area of the rivals.

While the Vietnamese players were focusing on attacking, their opponents launched a rapid counterattack near the end of the first half, and striker Kyaw Ko Ko fired a powerful shot from the midfield to score the opener after seeing Vietnam’s goalkeeper Anh Duc was too far up.

Myanmar continued to play hard despite the advantage of being a goal up.

Shortly after the goal, three Myanmarese players Myat Naing Aung, Kyaw Ko Ko and Aung Zaw Lin were sent off.

With the huge advantage of having more players, the home team found it easier to breach the opponent’s defense. Dinh Bao and Minh Tuan found the net in the 59th and 70th minutes.

Eight minutes from time, another Myanmarese player Tin Wing Aung was sent off after getting his second yellow card of the match and Vietnam’s captain Van Quyet wrapped up the win with a goal one minute before the final whistle.

In other matches, Malaysia crushed East Timor 7-1, Australia drew with Thailand 1-1, and Singapore beat Cambodia 3-1.

Reported by Quang Huy