Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street in downtown Ho Chi Minh City was abuzz with excitement on Thursday night as a sea of people flooded the area to celebrate Vietnam's semifinal victory over Malaysia in men's football at the 31st Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

Vietnam U23s defeated their Malaysian rivals 1-0 in extra time in Thursday’s semifinal match, shooting up the Golden Stars into the men’s football final against Thailand, scheduled for Sunday night in Hanoi.

Both Vietnam and Malaysia's head coaches wanted to finish the game in 90 minutes, but that did not happen.

The match turned out to be intense as Vietnam faced difficulty in finding a way to score and Malaysia put up a solid defense, resulting in no goals netted in regulation time.

The goalless 90 minutes sent the two teams to the two extra-time halves.

When many were thinking of the penalty shootout during the second extra half, striker Nguyen Tien Linh scored with a header to fill every Vietnamese football fan with joy.

The remaining time saw Vietnam slow down and protect the precious lead until the final whistle, after which football lovers started celebrating nationwide.

The entire length of Nguyen Hue Pedestrian Street was full of fans sporting Vietnamese national flags and other symbols of national pride.  

Fans cheered for players throughout the taxing 120-minute game, and the atmosphere exploded the moment Linh scored the only goal of the match to keep Vietnam on course to defend its gold medal.

The celebration lasted until around midnight.

Vietnam are currently the defending gold medalists after beating Indonesia 3-0 in the final at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines.

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