Thanh Hoa beat Nghe An 2-1

Playing with only ten men from the 57th minute while squandering a range of scoring opportunities, Song Lam Nghe An suffered a 2-1 loss to hosts FLC Thanh Hoa during the Toyota V-League 1-2015 Round 19 on August 2.

FLC Thanh Hoa (in yellow) beat Song Lam Nghe An 2-1 on Sunday. (Image credit: VNE)

Right from the starting minutes of play, Thanh Hoa, with the home advantage, opened the scoring thanks to Phan Dinh Tung's goal in the 6th minute. Receiving the ball from the defensive line on the left, Tung stormed through his opponents before launching a diagonal left-foot shot past the visitors' keeper.

Nghe An increased the pressure for an equaliser and generated quite a lot of scoring opportunities. It took the guests 15 minutes to level the score when Harunal Abdul’s pass to teammate Cao Xuan Thang enabled him to launch a header past the home side's goalkeeper To Vinh Loi in the 23rd minute.

The match was fairly even sided until the 57th minute when Nghe An’s Manh Hung received his second yellow card and left the pitch after a fault to Vietnamese-Ghanaian striker Le Van Tan.

With only ten players, Song Lam Nghe An still managed to create a range of attacks on the home side. At the 80th minute, the visitors narrowly missed increasing the lead to 2-1 with a spectacular header; however Thanh Hoa’s keeper only just managed to deflect the ball with his foot. While the visitors were still in mourning over the regrettable miss, the hosts immediately organised an exemplary counterattack to score their second goal and to set the match at 2-1.

With the victory, Thanh Hoa FLC continue to hold their dominant position on the ladder in second place with 37 points; following Becamex Binh Duong in first place with 38 points, who beat XSKT Can Tho 4-1 on Saturday.

Other matches saw QNK Quang Nam and Hai Phong beat Dong Thap and SHB Da Nang by the same score of 2-0; Dong Nai tied 0-0 with Hanoi T&T; and Dong Tam Long An edged out Sanna Khanh Hoa BVN 2-0. The only remaining match of Round 19 between Quang Ninh Coal and Hoang Anh Gia Lai will take place tomorrow due to unfavourable weather conditions in Quang Ninh over the weekend.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)