Thailand coach Mano Polking is confident that the War Elephants will bounce back from their 1-0 away loss to Malaysia on Saturday night when the two sides square off again in the second leg of their AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2022 semi-final at Thammasat Stadium tomorrow.
Malaysia claimed the crucial goal against the run of play in the 11th minute when Faisal Halim found the net to celebrate his 25th birthday in style in front of a cheering crowd of 59,000 at Bukit Jalil National Stadium in Kuala Lumpur.
The second half witnessed Malaysia having a goal ruled out while Thailand's appeal for a late penalty was turned down too, meaning the six-time champions tasted their first defeat in the AFF Championship since 2016.
Polking is hoping for a comeback tomorrow.
"It is not over yet," said the German-Brazilian coach, adding: "We have just reached the halfway mark.
"We controlled the game throughout and we hope that during the second leg, we will be able to do it again.
"Malaysia are a good team and I expect them to rely on counter-attacks again in the second leg.
"The result of this game is not what we were expecting, but we created a lot of chances. We dominated the game throughout but still lost -- that's football.
"Now we need to make sure that we don't repeat the same mistakes in the second leg.
"We will attack for sure but we must avoid conceding a goal or the away-goal rule will make things even more difficult for us."
Thailand captain Theerathon Bunmathan also said he is expecting a better result at Thammasat Stadium.
"We played well in Kuala Lumpur but we just couldn't score," Theerathon said upon his return from the Malaysian capital yesterday. "I am sure it will be our day on Tuesday [tomorrow] ... The Malaysians can't be lucky all the time."
Malaysia broke the deadlock in the 11th minute when Sharul Nazeem played a long ball into the box from the halfway line and Ruventhiran Vengadesan headed it across the goal for Faisal to score his fourth goal of the tournament through the legs of Thai goalkeeper Kittipong Phuthawchueak.
The hosts almost made it 2-0 on a break shortly before the half-hour mark as Faisal split the Thai defence and his pass sent Quentin Cheng through on goal, but the right-back saw his effort sail over Kittipong's goal.
The War Elephants continued to hog possession, but hardly gave any trouble to the Malaysian defence.
Polking's men came the closest to scoring in Kuala Lumpur straight after the start of the second half. Teerasil Dangda did well to get in front of the Malaysian keeper to head a Suphanan Bureerat cross, but only to hit the woodwork. Then, in the 52nd minute, Suphanan's shot from close range brushed the roof of the goal on its way out.
Thailand had shouts for a penalty waved away in the 84th minute after Bordin Phala went down inside the box under the challenge of substitute Nur Shamie.