Ho Chi Minh City Club defeated Hanoi FC 3-1 in the opening round of the V-League 1 regular season on Friday. The visitors had taken a point in their previous meeting in June but could not repeat that result. Ho Chi Minh's performance marked a sharp reversal from their opening-day defeat to Cong An Nien Dan.
The match opened with drama before the first goal. A VAR review cancelled a Ho Chi Minh City goal in the sixteenth minute, leaving both sides to reset. To be fair, that interruption set a tense tone for what followed. Nguyen Tien Linh ended the stalemate twelve minutes later, slotting home to give the hosts the lead.
Q. C. Nguyen Thai doubled the advantage early in the second half. The Vietnamese midfielder struck in the fifty-first minute, extending the lead to two goals. Hanoi pressed for a response and finally found one through A. Jung in the sixty-fourth. The striker's goal briefly shifted momentum, but Ho Chi Minh City refused to blink.
J. Cummings sealed the victory in the eighty-third minute. The Australian forward added a third goal to end any lingering hopes for a Hanoi comeback. By then, the result was beyond doubt. Ho Chi Minh City had controlled the decisive moments when it mattered most.
The statistics told their own story. Hanoi dominated possession at sixty-one per cent and registered more attacks, but Ho Chi Minh City converted their opportunities with greater efficiency. Both teams recorded four shots on target, yet the home side took full advantage of theirs. The visitors earned seven corners to their opponents' zero, but that territorial dominance produced nothing on the scoreboard.
The result leaves Ho Chi Minh City third in the table with three points from one game. Hanoi sit tenth after their opening defeat, carrying zero points into their second fixture. The Vietnamese side will need to regroup quickly if they want to avoid a difficult start to the season.
