Football

HÀ Nội FC players celebrate their goal in the match against Becamex Bình Dương. Photo of VPF

HÀ NỘI — Hà Nội FC maintained their top place in the V.League after a 5-1 win over Becamex Bình Dương on Sunday when the matches returned after FIFA Days.

Playing on home turf, Lê Xuân Tú, Goncalves Silva Lucas Vinicius (two goals), Phạm Tuấn Hải and Mujan Tonci tore Bình Dương's net into pieces while goalkeeper Nguyễn Sơn Hải worked hard to denied other side.

Nguyễn Tiến Linh scored the only goal for the visitor three minutes to the end.

The win helped Hà Nội end their winless streak in the second leg of the tournament. They drew two and lost one since August 26. Meanwhile, the former champions strengthened their top place in the ranking with 34 points after 16 matches.

Their nearest rival is Viettel, who beat Sông Lam Nghệ 1-0 at Vinh. The defending champions have 28 points and replaced Hải Phòng in second place.

With as many points as Viettel, Hải Phòng dropped because of a goal difference after their 1-1 draw to Hoàng Anh Gia Lai on Sunday at Lạch Tray Stadium.

Hoàng Anh Gia Lai meanwhile maintained in fifth place with 22 points.

Topperland Bình Định's 1-2 loss to Đông A Thanh Hóa pushed them to fourth place with 27 points and their undefeated streak ended at five.

Seller dweller HCM City welcomed Vũ Tiến Thành as its new head coach after most of the team's coaching board and president resigned.

Coach Vũ Tiến Thành plans to help HCM City avoid relegation this season. Photo thanhnien.vn

HCM City dropped to the bottom after it lost 2-0 in the city's derby match to Sài Gòn FC last Friday. It has 13 points, two less than Sài Gòn and Hồng Lĩnh Hà Tĩnh, who are at 12 and 11, respectively.

Thành watched the match and said HCM City players managed the ball well but the connection between players was zero. The front line worked ineffectively while the defence could not resist Sài Gòn's attacks and suffered goals from unexpected situations.

"In theory, HCM City are the most likely candidate to be relegated to the lower division. However, the gap between us and the others is not too big. Winning two matches, we can change a lot," said Thành. "Our final eight matches in the V.League 1 will be our finals. I predict that if we can earn 12 to 15 points from these games, we will stay with V.League 1."

Thành was president of Sài Gòn FC, who finished at third place in 2020 but in the next season he let two-thirds of the players leave and the club was in a big crisis.

The team was in the bottom and faced with relegation before the tournament was cancelled because of the pandemic.

Thành then left Sài Gòn to become a coach of PFV Football Academy's U12 and U19 squads. VNS