Indonesia managed to make it two wins from two as they demolished Brunei Darussalam 7-0 in their second Group A match of the 2022 AFF Championship at the KLFA Stadium in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Seven different players made their way to the scoresheet for the Timnas Garuda as they managed to easily blow away a hapless Tebuan side who finished the match with only ten men on the pitch.
Taking on arguably the weakest opposition in Group A, Indonesia head coach Shin Tae-yong took no chances and fielded a strong-looking squad at the KLFA Stadium, featuring heavy hitters such as Nadeo Argawinata, Asnawi Mangkualam, Saddil Ramdani, Egy Maulana Vikri, and Ilija Spasojevic.
After continuously pressing Brunei throughout the opening ten minutes, Indonesia finally broke the Tebuan‘s resistance in the 20th minute. Accepting an excellent pass from Spasojevic, Syahrian Abimanyu fired low into the left corner of Haimie Nyaring’s goal to give Indonesia the lead.
After both Dendy Sulistyawan and Saddil came close for Indonesia, disaster befell Brunei in the 38th minute after an Alinur Jufri foul on Saddil led to the former receiving a second yellow card from the referee, effectively crippling the Tebuan as they had to continue the match with ten men.
Three minutes after Jufri’s dismissal, Indonesia managed to find their second goal. An Asnawi cross was tapped towards Dendy by Saddil, with the Bhayangkara FC attacker taking no hesitation in planting the ball into Nyaring’s goal.
The floodgates were then well and truly open in the second half. An Egy header in the 59th minute made it 3-0 Indonesia, before the Timnas Garuda went 4-0 up only a minute afterward after Spasojevic took advantage of an Asnawi pass to fire home past Nyaring.
Eight minutes later substitute Ramadhan Sananta made it 5-0 for the visitors, allowing Indonesia to step back a notch and go into cruise control mode.
With Brunei still struggling to find their way past Indonesia, the Timnas Garuda added two more goals that killed off the contest – Marc Klok’s 86th minute strike and a goal in the second minute of injury time courtesy of Yakob Sayuri.
The huge 7-0 win ensured that Indonesia remain neck-and-neck with Thailand at the summit of Group A, as Thailand themselves also bagged a win in their outing – a 4-0 thumping of the Philippines at the Thammasat Stadium.
Teerasil Dangda scored a first half brace before the contest was killed off by goals from Adisak Kraisorn and Suphanan Bureerat, thus setting up a tasty top-of-the-table clash between Indonesia and Thailand at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium on December 29th.