A 2-2 draw was enough for Australia to win Group C as Cambodia sneaked into the semifinals of the ASEAN U19 Boys’ Football Championship following the end of the group stage tonight at the Sumatera Utara Main Stadium in Deli Serdang.
It is the first time since the inception of the championships in 2002 that Cambodia has made it into the semi-finals. Vietnam was expected to clinch the final semi-final berth Group A but the shock draw between Cambodia and five time champions Australia paid put to their chances.
In the semifinals, five-time champions Thailand will take on Cambodia while host Indonesia, the defending champions, will entertain Australia.
It will be the first time in 14 appearance at the championships that Cambodia managed to qualify out of the group stages.
It took just three minutes for Australia to take the lead through Marcus Edward Neil, as Alexandro Diogo Nunes then doubled the advantage in the 18th minute.
However, Cambodia did not give up going into the second half as Sokea Sreng narrowed the gap at the hour mark before Lewis Domenic Marinucci’s own goal in the 82nd minute gifted Cambodia the draw and a place in the knockout stage in two days.
