A Hanoi man made a surprise proposal to his girlfriend and shot a one-of-a-kind pre-wedding album on Tuesday night, when Vietnam’s U23 football team rocked the country by upsetting Qatar to make it to the 2018 AFC U23 Championship final game.

The album, showing the couple happily posing with a sea of people donning red and yellow T-shirts and carrying the Vietnamese national flag in the background, caused a stir on Facebook on the same night.

The groom-to-be, Vu Quang Tam, carefully discussed the plan with his photographer Hai Le Cao after Vietnam won their quarterfinal match against Iraq on Saturday.

“We were both convinced that Vietnam would continue to win and decided to do something special when the whole nation celebrated such a historic moment with pride,” the photographer, who fielded more than 4,000 ‘likes’ after sharing parts of his works on Facebook, told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper.

The most crucial factor for the idea to work as planned was that Vietnam beat Qatar in their semifinal match in China on Tuesday afternoon, which really happened.

Tam therefore said he was overwhelmed with happiness after Vietnam edged out Qatar 4-3 on penalties, which means his wish had come true.

“If Vietnam lost the game, I might have to delay the plan until Valentine’s Day or another occasion,” he said.

As people across the country took to the streets in glorification of the historic win on Tuesday night, Tam proposed to his girlfriend, Truong Thi Bich Dao, and told her to get ready to shoot for their pre-wedding album, a practice widely observed by Vietnamese couples before marriage.

Dao recalled that she was rejoicing over the team’s victory when her beloved man went down on his knees.

“I was totally stunned and overwhelmed with emotions,” she said. “Then I was ‘kidnapped’ to the photo shoot.”

Cao said it was quite a challenge to arrange a photo shoot amid an exciting crowd of people, but the final works have won the praise not only from the couple but also from thousands of Internet users.

Tam and Ha will officially tie the knot in March.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!