HÀ NỘI — Although missing two key foreign footballers, Hải Phòng still defeated defending champions Bình Dương 3-1 to take back their top position in the 19^th round match of the V.League 1 yesterday.

Hải Phòng didn’t have the appearance of Andre Diego Fagan and Anthony Stevens who have been banned for three matches after sarcastically bowing to referee Võ Minh Trí in the 18th round.

Only 15 minutes after the referee whistled, Lê Công Vinh opened the scoring for Bình Dương after receiving a pass from Lê Tấn Tài.

However, Nguyễn Đình Bảo leveled the score at 1-1 for Hải Phòng in the 28^th minute.

Taking full advantage of Bình Dương defenders’ error, striker Lê Văn Thắng raised the score to 2-1 several minutes later.

In the last minutes of the first half, from a quick attack, Bảo helped Hải Phòng fix the match at 3-1.

With this win, Hải Phòng took the lead out of 14 teams with 37 points, followed by Hà Nội T&T with 35 points and Đà Nẵng with 34 points.

In other fixtures, Hà Nội T&T beat SHB Đà Nẵng 2-1 at Chi Lăng Stadium in the central coastal city of Đà Nẵng.

The visitors Hà Nội T&T controlled the match since the first minutes.

In the 17^th minute, striker Hoàng Vũ Samson opened the score for Hà Nội T&T.

The hosts attacked to level the score but they couldn’t beat the visitors’ defenders.

T&T had one more goal in the first half but the referee didn’t recognise that goal because of an offside by Nguyễn Văn Quyết.

In the 68^th minute, Gonzalo Damian Marronkle doubled the score for T&T, but only five minutes later, Đà Nẵng had a goal to narrow the gap thanks to striker Gaston Melo.

Elsewhere, FLC Thanh Hóa lost to Hoàng Anh Gia Lai 1-3, Đồng Tháp tied with Quảng Ninh Coal 1-1, Quảng Nam drew goalless with Cần Thơ, Sài Gòn FC had a draw of 1-1 with Khánh Hòa. — VNS