The second victory in the qualifying match of the Asian Cup-2027 was won by the football team of Turkmenistan, beating the Thai team 3-1 on Tuesday. The game took place in the central arena of the «Ashgabat» multifunctional stadium in the presence of 15,545 spectators.
The Thai national football team is often referred to as the «War Elephants». This nickname is associated with the history and culture of Thailand, where elephants occupy a special place.
For the past two years, the 58-year-old famous Japanese specialist Masatada Ishii has been working with the «War Elephants» as head coach. Under his leadership, the Japanese «Kashima Antlers» team reached the finals of the World Club Championship in 2016, where they lost 2-4 to Madrid’s «Real» in extra time, and the Thai club «Buriram United» in He won the domestic treble in two consecutive seasons (2021-22 and 2022-23), winning the championship, the Thai Cup and the Thai League Cup.
The day before the game, Masatada Ishii said at the pre-match press conference: «We came to Ashgabat for a victory».
Before the match, the Thai players were considered favourites. And with good reason. The Thai national team ranks 99th in the FIFA ranking, 43 positions ahead of the Turkmen team. And the history of personal meetings was not in favor of our national team. Before the match in Ashgabat, the rivals held two friendly matches. The first of them ended in a 3-3 draw on the 21st of November, 1998 in Bangkok, and in the second on the 27th of May, 2022, the Thais celebrated a 1-0 victory at their home arena in Sisaket.
The national teams of Turkmenistan and Thailand approached the upcoming qualifying match as leaders of group «D». In the first round, Turkmen football players scored a 2-1 away win over Chinese «Taipei», while Thailand beat Sri Lanka 1-0 at home.
The first official match in the history of the national teams of Turkmenistan and Thailand began «without intelligence». Already on the 25th second, the visitors struck a dangerous shot from outside the penalty area, which goalkeeper Resul Charyyev did not easily cope with. And on the 36th second, Mihayil Titov, the striker of Kyrgyz «Uzgen», who volunteered for the Turkmenistan national team for the first time in two years, beat two defenders in the opponent's penalty area and pushed the ball past the goalkeeper into the net, becoming the author of the fastest goal in the history of the national team.
The wards of Masatada Ishii immediately rushed to recoup. They made several dangerous attacks, and in the 35th minute, after a free kick, the tall Supachai Chayed equalised the score with a 1:1 header.
The missed goal, however, did not break the Turkmen players, who took the lead again two minutes later. Defender Mekan Saparov, who was recognized as the best player of the match, scored on Shanazar Tirkishov, who beat two defenders in the right corner of the penalty area and gave a perfect pass to Yhlas Saparmammedov, who, being in the far corner of the goalkeeper's box, sent the ball into the net with his second touch without interference.
With the score 2-1 in favour of our players, the teams went on a break.
In the second half, Rovshen Meredov's team continued to confidently control the game, and in the 66th minute they completely increased the advantage to two goals. The author of the third goal was Mekan Saparov, who, after giving a corner kick from the right edge, drove the ball into the goal with his hip.
In the remaining time before the final whistle, the guests made a lot of efforts to somehow close the gap in the score. However, they failed to achieve what they wanted.
The victory over the Thai national team was the first in almost six years on the home arena, when on the 19th of November, 2019, the Sri Lankan team beat 2-0 in the 2022 World Cup qualification at «Kopetdag» Stadium, and the first under the leadership of the new head coach of the national team of Turkmenistan Rovshen Meredov. Remind that this 42-year-old specialist joined the team just two weeks before the game with Thailand and managed to achieve a good result with the players in the game against a strong opponent.
Having won an important victory in the fight for the only ticket in Group «D» to the final part of the 2027 Asian Cup, the Turkmen footballers topped the tournament table with 6 points. The Sri Lankan and Thai teams are 3 points behind. The Chinese Taipei national team, which lost 1-3 to the Sri Lankan team in the second round, has no points yet.
Turkmenistan's national football team will play their next match in the 2027 Asian Cup qualification on the 9th of October, 2025, away against Sri Lanka.
