Hosts Indonesia and Vietnam played out a goalless draw in their 2022 AFF Championship semifinal first leg at the Gelora Bung Karno on Friday.
Taking on the 2018 champions at a heated Gelora Bung Karno, Indonesia were dominated in terms of possession by the visitors, who had 56% of the ball. The Timnas Garuda also had to contend with the antics of Doan Van Hau, who managed to land a red card-worthy tackle on Dendy Sulistyawan as well as committing a poor foul on Ricky Kambuaya, with both offenses going unpunished by the referee.
The match itself was a slow-burner, with both teams being cautious with their attacks in the opening few minutes. Yakob Sayuri carved out the first real chance of the match in the 31st minute, firing off a shot that went wide off Dang Van Lam’s goal.
Marselino Ferdinan then tested Van Lam a few minutes afterwards, receiving the ball from Jordi Amat before breaking through the Vietnamese offside trap, only for his shot to be denied by the Topenland Binh Dinh goalie.
The second half saw Vietnam starting to make their presence known to the Indonesia defense, putting pressure on Nadeo Argawinata in the Timnas Garuda goal. Likewise, Indonesia retaliated by carving out several chances of their own to threaten Van Lam’s goal, but their poor finishing meant that none of their shots made it past the Russian-Vietnamese goalkeeper.
In total, Indonesia made eight shots to Vietnam’s four, however no goals were scored and the match ended 0-0, meaning that both Indonesia and Vietnam still had a good chance of making it into this year’s AFF Championship final.
The second leg will be played at the My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi on January 9th, with a score draw (1-1, 2-2, 3-3 etc.) being enough for Indonesia to qualify for the final by virtue of the away goals rule.