VietNamNet Bridge – Despite cold weather and a 2-0 loss to Malaysia in the first leg semi-final of the ASEAN Football Championship on Wednesday, thousands of Vietnamese fans lined up at My Dinh National Stadium yesterday, Dec 16, to buy tickets for the second leg match tomorrow, Dec 18.

Eager anticipation: Football fans queuing for the ASEAN Football Federation Suzuki Cup tickets at My Dinh National Stadium in Ha Noi. (Photo: VNS)

A line of hundreds of metres had queued up at the stadium by 7am, nearly two hours before tickets were to go on sale at 8.30am.

The first leg loss left a tall order for Viet Nam in the return match, but over 1,200 organisations have also registered to buy at least 165,000 tickets, over four times the stadium capacity.

A fan named Minh, who got the first ticket, said he had arrived at 4am but still had to purchase a ticket for a seat behind the goal line.

"I just bought an uncomfortable seat, but I'm still lucky," Minh said. "I just hope that Viet Nam can overturn the first-leg loss."

Security was tight at the stadium, so chaos would not erupt among the queuing fans.

Due to the high demand, fans were only allowed to buy two tickets, with prices starting from VND100,000 (US$5). Only a few were able to buy grandstand tickets, at prices of VND200-400,000 ($10-20). Just one hour after ticket sales ended, touters were offering some of the same seats at VND1.3 million ($68).

Witnessing the crowd of touts, fan Nguyen Van Hung said, "I'll watch the match on TV as I did two years ago. I don't want to waste time and money for touted tickets."

Viet Nam must win at least 3-0 in the second leg match tomorrow to secure a final berth, while a 2-0 win would mean that Viet Nam and Malaysia play extra time.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News