Cambodia's bid to win a first ever gold medal in the 2019 men’s Southeast Asian (Sea) Games football competition ended with a 4-0 semi-final loss to Vietnam on Saturday at the Rizal Memorial Stadium in Manila on Saturday.
Felix Dalmas’ Young Warriors must now regroup as Myanmar await them in the bronze medal match at the same venue on Tuesday at 3pm Cambodian time.
Cambodia could not find an answer to Vietnam’s potent attack, with a hat-trick from Ha Duc Chinh after Nguyen Tien Linh’s opener securing Vietnam a spot in the final against Indonesia, who downed Myanmar 4-2 in the earlier semi at the same stadium.
Tournament favourites Vietnam broke the deadlock in the 20th minute, with Chinh the provider as he sent in a cross for Tien Linh to head into the far corner. Chinh doubled Vietnam’s lead five minutes later.
Chinh outmuscled Cambodia defender Yue Safy after a long ball and outran him to goal before firing past the advancing Keo Soksela in goal.
With half-time approaching, Cambodia failed to clear the danger from Truong Van Thai Quy, who sent in an excellent pass to find Chinh at the near post, who headed home.
Vietnam refused to take their foot off the accelerator in the second half, and Chinh completed his hat-trick in the 68th minute, re-directing in a corner at the near post.
Cambodia missed a penalty in the fourth minute of injury-time, after Do Thanh Thinh handled In Sodavid’s cross.
But Vietnam goalkeeper Nguyen Van Toan denied Cambodia a consolation, diving low to his to right to keep out Keo Sokpheng’s spot-kick
Vietnam, who won the inaugural Southeast Asian Peninsular Games as South Vietnam in 1959, now take on two-time Sea Games champions Indonesia in the final at 7pm on Tuesday.
