Cambodia knocked out of  the AFF Championship with heads held high

It was a game they weren’t expected to win and a result that leaves Cambodia knocked out of the AFF Championship, but they at least went down fighting against the most successful team in the region.

To read about Cambodia vs Vietnam click here.

Football as they say is a funny old game, but the joke it would appear is often on the fans, with this game taking place at the Thammasat Stadium. For some context this is literally hours from downtown. 

The fans though came, with a decent traveling contingent from Cambodia hoping to see what would have been a historic win, but alas it was not to be. 

Cambodia actually started the match as the better team, something which seemingly took the Mighty Elephants by surprise, but it was the later who were to deal the first two strikes.

Teerasil covered a controversial penalty to put the hosts in front just before the interval before Purisai doubled their lead just after the break in the 50th minute. 

At this Cambodia could have given up, but instead the countered hard, with Sieng Chanthea netted for the Cambodians in the 69th minute and for the next 20 looked like they could pull off a draw, if not an outright win. 

The game though was put to bed on the 90th minute when star Thai Teerasil netted his second of the game to put the host through top.

Where does this leave Cambodia?

On the face of it Cambodia did exactly as expected, or at least hit minimal expectations with a played 4 won 2 lost 2 Victories came against expectedly against Brunei, wit the win against the Philippines being a genuinely good performance.

And of course they lost to Indonesia and Thailand, as expected, but on both occasions at least put up a fight.

Does this mean Honda should stay? We are certainly not saying that, but we can at least be satisfied, if not happy with how things turned out.

AFF Championship – What next?

Thailand and Indonesia are though, with Indonesia likely to face Vietnam. It is though all about the winner takes all Singapore Malaysia match that will decide who most likely takes on Thailand in the other semi.

You can follow the AFF Championship here.