HAGL drew with Nam Dinh in a great way: Dramatic score race, young star shines again

HAGL hòa cực hay Nam Định: Chạy đua tỷ số kịch tính, sao trẻ lại tỏa sáng - Ảnh 1. — Minh Tam continues to score for HAGAL

HAGL's attack line has transformed

At home ground Pleiku Arena, HAGL welcomed the defending champion Nam Dinh Club with high spirits after closing round 8 by defeating The Cong Viettel 2-1, to have the first victory in LPBank V-League 2025 - 2026.

Although they have not yet escaped the bottom of the table, those 3 valuable points have helped coach Le Quang Trai and his team shake off a lot of pressure that has weighed on their feet since the beginning of the season, to aim for the next 3 points against Nam Dinh Club, which is facing a performance crisis.

In this match, HAGL only used 2 foreign players, including captain Jairo and midfielder Marciel, but entered the match very confidently against the away team with only 8 reserve players due to too many injuries, and without suspended midfielder Van Cong.

Highlight HAGL 2-2 Nam Dinh: Breathtaking chase

HAGL hòa cực hay Nam Định: Chạy đua tỷ số kịch tính, sao trẻ lại tỏa sáng - Ảnh 2. — Thanh Nhan (left) equalized 2-2 for HAGL in the 45+3 minute

The home team's confidence caused certain difficulties for the visitors who had been without a win for 2 months. They were even the ones who took the lead after Minh Tam's brilliant offside trap goal in the 19th minute.

This goal was like a trigger, awakening the fighting spirit of the away team, pushing the speed of play to a much higher level. In the 32nd minute, Brenner scored his first goal in the V-League this season, after jumping high and heading the ball close to the goal to equalize 2-2.

Just 4 minutes later, this same striker defeated goalkeeper Trung Kien on the 11m mark to raise the score to 2-1 for the away team. However, the match became even more dramatic when Thanh Nhan equalized 2-2 in the 45+3 minute, much to the regret of the Nam Dinh Club's coaching staff.

Breathtaking to the last minute

HAGL hòa cực hay Nam Định: Chạy đua tỷ số kịch tính, sao trẻ lại tỏa sáng - Ảnh 3. — Brenner (35) scored a double for Nam Dinh Club

Entering the second half, Nam Dinh Club put all their efforts into finding more goals. In addition to Van Dat being injured and being replaced by A Mit, Coach Nguyen Trung Kien also brought in the 2.06 m tall "pole" Farren Hudlin to exploit the high balls.

For most of the second half, the ball mainly rolled on HAGL's field with Nam Dinh's ball possession rate being over 60%. However, the mountain town team's defense still played firmly thanks to the alert aerial combat ability of the two U.23 Vietnam players, center back Quang Kiet (1.92 m tall) and goalkeeper Trung Kien (1.92 m).

Meanwhile, in the 74th minute, coach Le Quang Trai sent Dinh Lam and especially young talent Gia Bao (top 60 best young talents in the world by The Guardian ) onto the field, showing calculations for the attacking goal behind the proactive defense of the home team at Pleiku Arena.

HAGL hòa cực hay Nam Định: Chạy đua tỷ số kịch tính, sao trẻ lại tỏa sáng - Ảnh 4. — Coach Nguyen Trung Kien's emotional performance at Pleiku Arena

As the match drew to a close, especially in the last 10 minutes, Nam Dinh Club almost abandoned the passing style of play to focus on crossing as much as possible to the three tall "poles" Farry, Lucas and Brenner in the HAGL Club's penalty area.

However, the good blocking from the two wings helped Trung Kien and Quang Kiet build a solid wall, effectively blocking the visitors' "overwhelming" play. Meanwhile, Gia Bao was still waiting for an opportunity in the center circle.

As a result, both teams left the field with a 2-2 draw, in a "tight race" if you look at the close shooting index between HAGL and Nam Dinh Club (9 and 11). The happier one was of course the home team while Nam Dinh Club had their 6th consecutive match without a win in V-League.