The men's national association football teams of Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates played a match on 8 July 2007 as part of the 2007 AFC Asian Cup.

Vietnam was regarded as an unskilled and uncoordinated team and had a below-average performance in the 2006 World Cup qualification phase, finishing third in their group with a record of 1-1-4.

Vietnam's performance had also suffered criticism at the 2007 AFF Championship, when they were eliminated in the semi-finals by Thailand following a 0-2 defeat at home and a 0-0 away draw.

To prepare for the competition, Vietnam played two friendlies against Jamaica and Bahrain, with the latter sharing common cultural ties with the United Arab Emirates and finished fourth at the previous Asian Cup.

The UAE, having just won the Arabian Gulf Cup the same year, had several top stars in their squad, notably Ismail Matar, Amer Mubarak and Faisal Khalil.

Vietnam's goalkeeper, Dương Hồng Sơn, played a key role in keeping the score level in the first half.

Majed Naser, slow to react to Phương's run, allowed a decisive strike by Thanh to give Vietnam a 1–0 lead in the 64th minute.

He then made a long pass through to Lê Công Vinh, who shot the ball over Naser's head in the 73rd minute, giving Vietnam a 2-0 lead.

[4] For the UAE, the loss had a disastrous consequence on their campaign and for Vietnam, their shock victory over one of Asia's best teams at the time helped establish them as a competent nation in football.

It also had a significant consequence for the tournament and sparked a surge of surprise upsets in the Asian Cup, including Iraq's shock 3–1 win over Australia and Bahrain's 2–1 victory over South Korea.

Although they lost 4–1 to a much more powerful Japan, Vietnam successfully booked their ticket to the quarter-finals,[5] at which they were beaten by eventual champions Iraq.

They also managed to overcome two Middle Eastern sides, Yemen and Jordan, both of whom share common cultural ties to the UAE.

Meanwhile, the UAE managed to reach the semi-finals for the second consecutive tournament, but failed to defeat eventual champions Qatar in a disappointing 0–4 loss.

[7][8][9] Vietnam repeated their victory against UAE at home 1–0 for their first win in 12 years and culminated in the sacking of Bert van Marwijk.