BANGKOK: Thailand coach Anthony Hudson was delighted his team advanced to the semi-finals of the Asean Hyundai Cup 2026 unscathed after their 2-0 win over Myanmar in Bangkok on Saturday took the seven-times champions into the last four for a record 14th time.
A penalty in each half from Worachit Kanitsribumphen and Jehhanafee Mamah earned the Thais their fourth win in a row in the group phase, with the War Elephants advancing to the last-four clash against Singapore with a maximum 12 points and without conceding a goal.
“I'm really pleased with the result, really pleased with winning our games, clean sheets, and qualifying for the semi-finals,” said Hudson.
“I was also pleased we were able not to have to use our five players on yellow cards, so a huge amount of credit to the players for really digging in and getting another positive result.”
The win over Myanmar came after earlier victories over Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines during an arduous two-week-long group phase and Hudson is now looking forward to a period of recovery before the first leg of the semi-final in Singapore on Saturday.
“The plan, as you can see tonight, which is why I'm very proud of the players, is that they had to put in a performance and get a result, and a lot of players were incredibly fatigued,” he said.
“It's one of the biggest reasons why we weren't able to be a little bit more aggressive in our approach. So the players, the first focus is they need to recover. And then on Monday we have to get going, totally focused on the game plan for Singapore.”
Thailand have gone 10 matches unbeaten since Hudson took over from Masatada Ishii as head coach in October last year and the Thailand coach believes his players are starting to adapt to his methods.
“Now we have time together, I feel we're building an understanding of how we want to approach games,” he said. “I would say the first few games have been really positive in terms of how we want to play.
“I think the first half tonight, there were some really good moments with the ball, but we could see at half-time a lot of players were suffering, players were having cramps, we're putting players in different positions. So that's why I'm proud of it.”
The result saw Myanmar exit the competition as Jørn Andersen’s side finished in third position on six points, three adrift of Malaysia, who defeated the Philippines in Kuala Lumpur to complete the semi-final line-up.
“When we look away from the result today, I think everybody here sees who was the best team playing today, who had the most chances, who hit the bar two times,” said the Norwegian.
“I didn't see one finish from Thailand that was dangerous. I'm a bad loser today because we didn't have to lose this game.”
