Third time is not the charm for Malaysia after they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Vietnam at My Dinh Stadium on Thursday. The joint 2022 World Cup and 2023 Asian Cup qualification match was reminiscent of the final played at the same venue between the two teams last year with the odd goal separating the two sides.
The hard facts are that Malaysia did not perform to what they were capable of, as was shown in the earlier two matches in Group G against Indonesia and United Arab Emirates. There was a lot of sloppiness in the performance which could be attributed to the state of the pitch in Hanoi.