Indonesia vs Cambodia

Indonesia’s AFF Championship Group A journey gets underway against Cambodia at the Patriot Stadium on Friday.

Indonesia scored on either side of halftime to beat Curacao 2-1 and 3-2, respectively, in December’s warm-up fixtures to set themselves up nicely for this tournament. Those victories came on the back of Indonesia’s successful Asian Cup qualifying campaign, as a return of two wins and a loss in a third-round qualifying Group A catapulted them into the competition as the second-best of second-ranked teams. The ‘Garuda Squad’ will be looking to build on those successes at the AFF Championship they’ve failed to conquer at any of the previous 13 attempts despite reaching the grand final six times. Keen to go one better than last tournament’s runner-up finish, Indonesia will take on a Cambodia side they’ve defeated by a two-goal margin in three consecutive H2Hs since a 4-0 loss in 2008.

In the meantime, Cambodia got their AFF Championship Group A campaign off to a flyer as a quick-fire double inside the opening 20 minutes helped them edge the Philippines 3-2 in a curtain-raising fixture. Having failed to make it out of the tournament’s group stages in all eight previous participations in the AFF Championship, the ‘Angkor Warriors’ could make history this year. But their underwhelming six-game form (W1, D1, L4) suggests the abovementioned toppling of the Philippines could’ve been just a fluke. To prove their tournament credentials, Cambodia will have to defy an abysmal competitive H2H record against Indonesia, losing four of their five official meetings overall (D1). Indeed, their last H2H defeat was a 4-2 demolition in the 2020 AFF Championship group stages.