MANILA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam men's U22 Olympic football team drew with defending champions Thailand here on Thursday, joining hands with Indonesia to reach semifinals in 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games men's football tournament.
The Vietnamese came back to draw after being 0-2 down against Thailand.
The defending championS began the game with a dream start after leading Vietnam by two goals in 10 minutes. Supachai Chaided scored the first goal only four minutes into the game and Suphanat Mueanta added another for "War Elephants" seven minutes later.
Nguyen Tien Linh reduced the deficit for Vietnam by a header to make it 2-1 at the 15th minute. The precious equalizer came at the 71 minutes when Nguyen Tien Linh scored the penalty made by himself.
On Thursday's other games, Indonesia won over Laos 4-0, Singapore smashed Brunei 7-0.
After finishing the final game in the group stage, Vietnam stayed atop at Group B with four wins and one drew while Indonesia placed at the second with four wins and one defeat.
In Group A, Myanmar and Cambodia have already booked tickets to the final four.
Both the gold and silver medalists in the 2017 SEA Games, Thailand, and Malaysia have been eliminated in the group stage.
The tournament to have new champions for the first time in nearly three decades.
Since 1993, Thailand have won 11 SEA Games men's football events while Malaysia won it twice - in 2009 and 2011.
According to rules, Vietnam will face Cambodia and Indonesia will take on Myanmar in semifinals held at Manila's Rizal Memorial Stadium on Sunday.
The final and the third-place playoff will be held on December 10 at the same venue.
