Thailand coach Mano Polking bemoaned his side’s defending at set-pieces after Vietnam salvaged a late 2-2 draw in the first leg of the Asean Football Federation championship final in Hanoi on Friday night.
Polking is aiming to lead the War Elephants to back-to-back titles after winning the competition last year, but saw his hopes of a first-leg lead ended by Vu Van Thanh’s 88th minute equaliser at My Dinh Stadium.
The second-leg match to decide the championship will be played on Monday at Thammasat Stadium in Pathum Thani, with the kickoff at 7.30pm.
“I said before the game, it’s 180 minutes and they have a good team,” said the Brazilian. “We need to rest, we have to focus. We have our fans who will help us, but still it’s not done.”
Vietnam, playing their last match at home under South Korean coach Park Hang-seo, had taken the lead through Nguyen Tien Linh’s diving header in the first half before goals from Poramet Arjvirai and Sarach Yooyen gave Thailand the lead.
Van Thanh then struck from distance after the visitors’ defence had made an unconvincing attempt to clear a corner.
Polking was disappointed to concede from another set-piece.
“We have to work on that better because the first one was also a rebound from a set-piece and we were not organised enough,” he added.
“We will focus on that, but we are happy with the performance.”