On January 1, 2022, Beijing time, the second leg of the Southeast Asian Championship final was staged, and Thailand, which had a four-goal advantage in the first leg, played against Indonesia. After 90 minutes, although Thailand drew 2-2 with its opponents, it won 6-2 on aggregate and won the 6th Southeast Asian Championship in team history.
Southeast Asian countries are not strong in the Asian region as a whole, so they attach great importance to the honor of the Southeast Asian Championship. In this competition, Vietnam, which reached the top 12, was seen as the biggest favourite, while the remaining potential champions included Thailand, Indonesia and host Singapore.
Due to the large gap in strength between the teams, the four teams promoted by the group in this competition are also the expected favorites to win the championship, namely Thailand and Indonesia, which are the first place to qualify, and Vietnam and Singapore, which are the second place to qualify. In the round of 4, Vietnam and Thailand met early, which was seen as an early staged final.
In the round of 4, Thailand only had 3 kicks in the 2-legged match, but they eliminated the biggest favorite Vietnamese team in the event, and successfully attacked with a dark horse posture. Indonesia, on the other hand, also miraculously reversed Singapore and reached the final for the sixth time.
Coming to the final, Thailand, which has won the championship five times, faces Indonesia, which has been runners-up five times, and the strength of the two sides is not on the same level. In the first leg, Thailand scored in the opening minute, which gave them an early advantage over the 2-legged game. As a result, after 90 minutes of fighting, Thailand won the match 4-0 and basically won the championship of this competition.
In the second leg, Thailand fell behind at the beginning, but they had a four-goal advantage in hand, so they didn't feel pressure at all. Back in the second half, Thailand scored 2 goals in 2 minutes to achieve a 2-1 comeback. In the 79th minute of the match, Indonesia scored to equalize. For Thailand, due to their huge advantage in the first leg, their fighting spirit to win this game was not strong, and the two sides finally drew 2-2 in 90 minutes.
After 180 minutes, Thailand won the match 6-2 on aggregate, won the first championship trophy of 2022, and also won the 6th Southeast Asian Championship in the history of the team, and they are still the country with the most cups in the competition. For Indonesia, they were runners-up again, the sixth time they had lost the final.
For Thailand, ranked 115th in the world, it failed to reach the round of 12 of the World Cup. But being able to win the Southeast Asian Championship again is also a testament to their potential, after all, it is also the Asian regional championship trophy. According to the news, after winning the championship, the Thai team can get more than 26 million baht (about 4.94 million yuan) in rewards.