I would like to congratulate Indonesia. They played well and we didn’t. This failure is sad. We wanted to get to the final but were disillusioned,” coach Issara Sritaro said at the Rayong Stadium press conference room after Thailand U23’s loss to Indonesia with a score of 1-3 on the evening of August 24.
The defeat of U23 Thailand was a big shock when the home team was considered a bright candidate at the U23 Southeast Asia 2023 tournament. In the group stage, the team of Coach Issara also made a good impression by winning all 3 matches, scoring 8 goals and not conceding any goals.
Meanwhile, U23 Indonesia is underestimated when it lost to U23 Malaysia by a score number 1-2 and had to rely on the support of U23 Vietnam by defeating the Philippines in the last round of the group stage to enter the semi-finals as the second team with the best performance.
But U23 Indonesia showed a completely different face when facing host Thailand at Rayong Stadium. The “land of thousands of islands” team soon took a two-goal lead after only 23 minutes of rolling after goals from Sroyer and Ferarri.
Even though there was a goal to shorten the score to 1-2, the kicking phase Natcha’s own goal made U23 Thailand bitterly watch their opponents win tickets to the final match.
“We conceded a goal too early and too easily. After shortening the score to 1-2, we had a chance to come back. But then the next own goal ruined us all and we couldn’t get back up. The whole team tried to attack in the second half but couldn’t do anything when the opponent defended too hard,” coach Issara Sritaro said disappointedly.
After this loss, U23 Thailand will meet Malaysia in the ranking match. Persia tomorrow (April 26) at 4:00 p.m. The final match between U23 Indonesia and U23 Vietnam will take place at 8:00 p.m. on the same day.
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