HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese football team left for Malaysia on December 7 afternoon to prepare for the first leg of the ASEAN Football Federation (AFF) Championship.

They will have four days to train and get familiar with the local weather and Bukis Jalil stadium.

Việt Nam are expected to have all of their top players available, including striker Nguyễn Văn Toàn who was sidelined from the group stages because of injury but is now back in action.

Malaysia will not have midfielder Muhammad Syahmi bin Safari, as he  was sent off in the semi-final against Thailand last week.

Two others, Norshahrul Idlan Talaha and Aidil Zafuan, are struggling with leg injuries and may not be able to play. 

The match will be held on Tuesday, marking Việt Nam’s first final in 10 years.

Thousand of supporters will follow the team as tours to Malaysia for the match are nearly sold out.

Many supporters booked tours which included air tickets, match tickets and meals when they were watching the semi-final between Việt Nam and the Philippines on Thursday. 

"Many fans bought tours during the match time and they received a discount of VNĐ1 million. We sold more than 30 packages during the game," a representative of Saigontourist told Tuổi Trẻ Online.

Vietravel is working with Vietnam Airlines (VNA) to offers four charter flights for supporters departing from Hà Nội, Đà Nẵng and HCM City.

The tour price is from VNĐ9.9 million (US$425).

VNA also plans to increase the number of flights to Kuala Lumpur to serve supporters.

Together with their daily scheduled flights, VNA will add up to two more providing more than 1,100 seats on Tuesday.

Extra flights will be added in case of high demand. — VNS