Myanmar vs Laos

Thuwunna Stadium is the venue as Myanmar and Laos go head-to-head in a bottom-table 2022 AFF Championship Group B six-pointer.

Time’s running out for Myanmar’s bid to progress into the AFF Championship knockout rounds after back-to-back group-stage eliminations. Following a narrow 1-0 loss to Malaysia on day one, the ‘Chinthe’ suffered a 3-2 defeat to Singapore last time out and now start round three six points adrift of the qualification spots. Myanmar’s underwhelming form stretches far beyond the tournament as they head into proceedings having lost ten of their last 11 internationals (D1), failing to get on the scoresheet in eight (73%) of those matches. But after beating Laos in their two most recent competitive H2Hs via an identical 3-1 scoreline, they’ll be confident about getting back to winning ways for the first time since December 2021.

In the meantime, Laos’ third consecutive AFF Championship campaign has started with a whimper rather than a bang as they’ve lost their opening three Group B games by an aggregate score of 13-0, including a 2-0 defeat to Singapore last time out. That was a drastic defensive improvement compared to their first two outings at the tournament, in which they conceded 5+ goals apiece. But with two matches left to play, the ‘Million Elephants’ are at risk of executing a second-worst defensive campaign at the AFF Championship, having let in 16 goals in the group stages twice before. Adding to this sentiment, they’ve conceded over 1.5 goals in their last four competitive H2Hs against Myanmar (D1, L3).