Striker Safee Sali’s brace saw Malaysia beat Viet Nam 2-0 in the first leg of
the ASEAN Football Championship AFF-Suzuki Cup semi-final yesterday, Dec 15.

Best foot forward: Midfielder Nguyen Vu Phong (right) attempts to get past a Malaysian defender in the team’s semi-final first leg encounter of the ASEAN Football Championship, AFF-Suzuki Cup in Kuala Lumpar yesterday. Malaysia won 2-0. (Photo: VNS)

The loss will mean
defending champions Viet Nam will face a hard task in the second leg match at Ha
Noi’s My Dinh National Stadium on Saturday.

Although starting the
game well in the first minutes, the Vietnamese side did little to trouble the
well-organised Malaysian defence.

In the 15th minute,
captain Minh Phuong launched a grass-skimming 25m rocket heading for the far
corner, but Malaysian keeper Khairul Fahmi Che Mat made a good save.

The hosts replied five
minutes later when Safee’s powerful header tested Vietnamese keeper Bui Tan
Truong.

Midfielder Vu Phong
closed the goalless first half time with a free kick in the 40th minute, which
was pushed away by goalie Khairul.

After the break, Coach
Henrique Calisto brought on midfielder Nguyen Minh Chau and striker Nguyen Viet
Thang to try and force a goal; however, they failed to have much of an impact
against Malaysia’s well-organised team.

Safee gave Malaysia
the lead in the 61st minute as his well-taken free kick beat Vietnamese keeper
Truong.

Truong once again held
some of the blame for the second Malaysian goal in the 80th minute.

Midfielder Safiq Bin
Rahim in a rapid attack fired a 25m shot from the right hand edge of the penalty
area, but despite Truong comfortably getting a hand to ball, the Vietnamese
contrived to palm it out to a borderline off-side Safee who doubled his goals
for the night with a nicely placed shot through the despairing Vietnamese
keeper.

Despite Vietnam
attempting to rally for the last 10 minutes of the match, sloppy passing and a
lack of urgency meant they created few chances of note.

Indonesia will host
the Philippines in the other semi-final in Jakarta today.

VietNamNet/Viet
Nam News