AFC Champions League Two
The Vietnamese side, who confirmed their Round of 16 ticket with a 2-1 win over Beijing FC on Matchday Five, finished second on eight points, five behind Macarthur FC. Tai Po closed one point adrift in third.
Both keepers became involved from the start, Cong An Ha Noi’s Vu Thanh Vinh grabbing the ball from Weverton Rangel’s feet before he could strike from inside the area and his counterpart Tse Ka Wing pushing out Leo Artur’s 20-yard attempt.
The Hong Kong Premier League champions struck the opening goal in the 13th minute after Leygley Adou handled the ball, Vu guessing James Temelkovski’s spot-kick correctly but failing to reach the ball before it hit the bottom right corner.
The lanky Australian’s penalty closed what was until then a fast-paced match, with play constantly being interrupted until the half hour mark, when Artur and Alves Rozario upped the tempo slightly with attempts at the Tai Po goal.
Nguyen Quang Hai’s strike from outside the area which took a deflection and went wide two minutes into time added on ended a first half which saw three players from each side being shown the yellow card.
The match started strongly after the break with Le Van Do blasting his shot over the Tai Po bar, Rangel hitting the side netting from the left moments later at the opposite end and Cong An Ha Noi’s Alan Grafite sweeping wide of the right post.
Tse later had to bundle out Artur’s first-time strike from inside the area and saved twice from Grafite within the span of five minutes as the visitors intensified their efforts at an equaliser.
A fast break by Tai Po in the 73rd minute saw an unmarked Michel Renner hitting the left post from just outside the six-yard area after being nicely set up by hard-running substitute Paulinho Simionato.
The match ended with three more Tai Po players being yellow-carded and Cong An Ha Noi frustrated at not closing their campaign on a high despite their dominance.
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