JAKARTA (25 Nov 2018) – A scoreless draw against hosts Indonesia here at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium tonight was enough to put the Philippines through to the semifinals of the AFF Suzuki Cup where they made the passage as the runners-up from Group B.
With Thailand blasting past Singapore 3-0 at the Rajamangala Stadium in the other match of the evening to win the group, the final round of matches this evening completed the cast for the next round.
Following from the game tonight, the semifinals will see Malaysia playing Thailand and the Philippines taking on Vietnam in the first leg on 1 December 2018 and 2 December 2018 respectively.
The second leg will be played on 5 and 6 December 2018.
“I am very happy with the draw tonight as it was good enough to put us through to the semifinals,” said Philippines head coach Sven Goran Eriksson.
“Two wins and two draws from four matches played. So it is good that we will play Vietnam only next week where this will allow us some time to recover.”
While there were moves to persuade fans not to come to the game tonight, some 15,000 enthusiasts still showed up to support the merah putih taking on the Philippines.
In a match that had no real consequent to Indonesia other than wanting to protect their image, they certainly did not give the Philippines a quiet night.
With chances few and very far in between, the action were more down the flanks as the nippy Rico Simanjuntak gave all sort of problems to the Philippines backline.
Luckily, neither Stefano Lilipaly or Beto could make them count as Philippines keeper Michael Falkesgaard had a relatively quiet night.
Both Daisuke Sato and Stephan Shrock were excellent at the centre of the park as the loss of captain Phil Younghusband to an aerial clash against Indonesian defender Fachruddin Aryanto stuttered the frontline.
The game only came alive after the hour mark with Indonesian custodian Andritany Ardhiyasa made a string of excellent saves to deny the attempts from Manuel Ott close range effort and Sato’s long lob.
“I wish to apologise for not being able to bring the team to the next round,” said Indonesian head coach Bima Sakti.
“My contract is only for the AFF Suzuki Cup. So whoever comes in next, I hope that the fans and the media will support him and the team.”
