Thailand relieves the “thirst for points” for Southeast Asia
At the 2024 Asian Cup, Southeast Asia has 4 participating representatives: Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. In the first match, despite playing very hard, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia all lost the match when facing stronger opponents.
As for the Thai national team, they played their opening match against the Kyrgyz national team without too much difference in professional level. When Group F also has two very strong teams, Saudi Arabia and Oman, the goal of both Thailand and Kyrgyzstan in the direct confrontation is to win 3 points to gain an advantage in the race to the 1/8 round.
Supachai played well and was lucky in the match against Kyrgyzstan. Photo: Reuters
Thailand’s squad at the 2024 Asian Cup lacks two experienced stars, Chanathip Songkrasin and Teerasil Dangda. This significantly affects Thailand’s attack power, especially when coach Masatada Ishi just replaced his predecessor Mano Polking.
However, Thailand played very hard and showed relatively sharp finishing ability. In the entire match against Kyrgystan, even though Thailand only controlled the ball 45% of the playing time, they created many dangerous finishing situations.
After two unlucky times when the ball hit the post and bounced off the crossbar, Thailand opened the scoring in the 26th minute. The pressure created by Phala with the shot forced goalkeeper Tokotaev to push the ball, making it easy for Supachai. Put the ball into an empty net to score.
Thailand has had a good start at the 2024 Asian Cup. Photo: Reuters
In the second half, Thailand quickly doubled the gap and the scorer was still Supachai. This time, Supachok missed his header, but the ball hit the Kyrgyz defender and reached Supachai. Thailand’s main striker at the Asian Cup did not miss the opportunity and scored a very simple goal.
In the remaining minutes of the match, Kyrgyzstan tried to attack but could not penetrate Thailand’s very strong defense. Winning the final 2-0, Thailand became the first team in Southeast Asia to win points at the 2024 Asian Cup and has many advantages to compete for a ticket to the 1/8 round.