No Christmas gift for Thailand

Despite enjoying dominance of play in the entertaining match, the Thai team, the last year's losing finalists, took sucker punches with two goals in space of three minutes near the end of the first half.

The home team managed to halve the deficit with substitute forward Ronnachai Rangsiyo's second-half header, however, they were unable to find the equaliser, leaving them a mountain to climb in the return leg in Hanoi this Sunday.