KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia suffered a 1-0 loss to Vietnam and were eliminated in the Sea Games football semi-finals today.
For Vietnam, who last met Malaysia in the Sea Games in 2009 and lost 1-0, they got their revenge.
Vietnam will meet Thailand, who defeated Indonesia 1-0 in last four today, in the final on Sunday.
At the Viet Tri Stadium, Malaysia struggled to penetrate Vietnam's tight defence and found little space in the third quarter of the field.
Malaysia's two key players, Luqman Hakim Shamsudin and Harith Haiqal Adam Afkar, worked hard in the physically draining match and had to be substituted in the second half due to injuries.
Brad Maloney's plucky boys were still able to hang on and deny the Vietnamese until the end of the regulation time.
But Vietnam, coached by the wily Korean Park Hang Seo, finally breached the Malaysian defence in the 111st minute of extra time through Linh Nguyen Tien who drew out goalkeeper Azri Ghani and cleverly slotted the ball home.
"Our players worked extremely hard, played with their hearts and gave it everything they got.
"And we had one recovery day (after Malaysia's last group match) and traveling time and for my players to go out there to play 120 minutes against the best in the competition and to concede one goal, I can't fault my players, I'm incredibly proud of them.
"The Vietnam team, they are deserved favourites and were quite physical. Our players got beaten a bit but they never backed down," said Maloney.