After the 3-1 victory over Singapore in the first leg of the ASEAN Cup 2026 semi-finals, coach Anthony Hudson highly appreciated the fighting spirit of his players, and admitted that the Thai team could not completely control the game as desired.
I am proud of each player. As you know, coming here to play against a strong opponent is very difficult, but everyone performed very well. We knew that facing such a strong opponent would be very difficult, but everyone did very well. From now on, we will return to Bangkok and rest fully. We will wait to face the next match," coach Anthony Hudson shared.
Thailand had an effective performance against Singapore when scoring 3 goals, including 2 goals in the first half. Teerasak and Poeiphimai scored respectively before Seksan scored to increase the score to 3-0 at the beginning of the second half. Singapore could only find a goal to narrow the gap thanks to Ilhan Fandi in the 84th minute.
According to coach Anthony Hudson, Thailand's most important goal is to win, despite the fact that Singapore is a tough opponent.
This is the group stage. Our main goal is to win. And in this match, we will visit Singapore, a team that is very difficult to deal with. Singapore has a very good playing style.
In the matches against Indonesia and Vietnam, we could not let them escape. They tried their best and played very well. There may have been some players disappointed in facing us, but in the end, we won," said Anthony Hudson.
Despite winning by a wide margin, coach Anthony Hudson admitted that Thailand could not control the ball and deploy everything according to plan. The three goals of the "War Elephants" mainly came from counter-attack situations.
I don't think we can control and do everything we want tonight when holding the ball. Looking back, the overall image of the Singapore national team, they did very well in the matches against Vietnam and Indonesia.
The main goal is to win the championship. During the half-time break, we discussed with the players, but we could not control the ball. The three goals we scored came from counter-attacks, not from the goals we planned from the beginning, but from the form of the squad we received," he said.
I changed the system, starting from preventing more goals being scored. After returning to Thailand, we tried to improve and correct mistakes, applying some lessons learned in the second match," the Thai national team coach added.
After the victory over Singapore, the Thai team has a great advantage before the second leg semi-final. However, Anthony Hudson emphasized that the team must not be subjective and must still respect the opponent.
Accept it, this match is complicated to handle because the opponent has a system, creating pressure. The way to deal with this type of team must change a little. Our main goal is to try to control the ball and dominate the match as much as possible, but sometimes in football, not everything happens as planned. The main goal is to win and we can do it.
We cannot return to Bangkok with confidence or ease, but we feel much better. With the advantage, we must respect the opponent. We need to be better prepared and handle situations better than before," Anthony Hudson concluded.
