The third defeat saw the national junior side, finishing in fourth place out of five teams with three points after playing four matches. Malaysia’s only win came against Myanmar when they beat the latter 1-0 in the opening match on Dec 5.

In today’s match held at Huamark Indoor Stadium, Vietnam only took three minutes to open the scoring via Nhan Gia Hung before Ahmad Harith Naim Mohd Nasir levelled for Malaysia in the 23rd minute, according to Asian Football Confederation (AFC) on their website www.the-afc.com.

Huynh Mi Woen turned hero for Vietnam after scoring the winning goal in the 40th minute.

Malaysia were also defeated in two other preliminary fixtures – Thailand and Indonesia.

The victory saw Vietnam joining the tournament’s winner, Thailand, and Indonesia, who finished third, in the final round, slated to be held in Iran, next year.