BOCAUE, Philippines — Visiting Indonesia gave host Philippines a huge scare, but the home side managed to salvage a 2-2 draw in the second day of the AFF Suzuki Cup Group A competition on Tuesday night at the Philippine Sports Stadium in Bocaue.
For the second straight game, the Azkals failed to gain a result, putting its campaign to advance in jeopardy unless it gains a win over Thailand, or both Singapore and Indonesia produce a draw on Friday night.
Fachruddin Aryanto produced the opening goal for Indonesia in the seventh minute with a strike inside the box that flew past Roland Muller and sent the partisan red and white crowd in a frenzy. But Misagh Bahadoran, who complained about not getting opportunities against Singapore last Saturday, tapped in the equalizer off Stephan Schrock’s free kick in the 31st minute to draw level at the halftime break.
Midway through the second half, Indonesia team captain Boaz Solossa once again put the Merah Putih ahead by the 68th minute on a rebound shot, not before Philippine counterpart Phil Younghusband sent his free kick home past goalkeeper Kurnia Meiga for the equalizer in the 82nd minute.
Thailand beat Singapore, secure slot in semi-final round
In the other game, Sarawut Masuk scored the winning goal late in the match to secure victory for Thailand over SIngapore and book the first seat in the semi-final round.
In what was a tight game all throughout, the defending Suzuki Cup titlist gained the bigger half of the possessions but failed to break through the airtight defense of the Lions. It wasn’t until the 89th minute when the War Elephants broke the stalemate on Sarawut’s second international goal in 19 caps on the senior level.
“[It was] not an easy game, they were defensively very sound. But we changed from a back four to back three, and our players worked hard, that’s why we got the good result,” said Thailand Head Coach Kiatisuk Senamuang. “We have to continue to work hard in the next game because it won’t be easy as well.”
“Before the game, we knew they were very good defensively – we saw that in their World Cup qualifying game against Japan. But today, we played well, our players were positionally good and we controlled the game, although it wasn’t easy to score. ”
Singapore Head Coach Varadaraju Sundramoorthy, on the other hand, has a huge task at hand in a must-win against Indonesia on Friday.
“We almost got an important point for us to progress to the next game to see where we stand. We were just minutes away, but that’s football,” said Sundramoorthy. “We need to prepare ourselves for Indonesia, because we still have a chance. ” Diego de la Paz / Eagle News Service
