Thailand vs Chinese Taipei

Thammasat Stadium plays host to Thailand’s seemingly routine friendly clash against Chinese Taipei this midweek.

Thailand rounded off September’s international break with a tight 2-1 win over Trinidad & Tobago before kickstarting the World Cup break with an overwhelming 6-0 victory over fellow Asian rivals Myanmar last time out. Delivering action from the onset, the ‘War Elephants’ opened the scoring within 25 minutes in both those fixtures, suggesting a quick-fire start could be on the cards. That would likely pave the way for Thailand’s bid to register a third consecutive friendly win over Chinese Taipei, having defeated them via a two-goal margin in both previous H2Hs. Connoisseurs of action-packed football will be looking forward to this encounter, considering five of Thailand’s last seven home matches have contained over 2.5 goals (W5, D1, L1 – 90mins only).

In the meantime, visiting Chinese Taipei come into proceedings amid a rough patch. Indeed, since beating Hong Kong 2-0 in a friendly in June 2019, they’ve lost ten internationals in succession, alarmingly conceding 2+ goals on each occasion. Furthermore, a lack of firepower up top has seen Yeh Hsien-chung’s men fail to find the net in five of their last seven outings, casting further doubt on their hopes of upsetting the odds in Pathum Thani. Perhaps even more damningly, the visitors have lost five consecutive away games in the build-up to this trip, succumbing to multi-goal margins on four occasions, including a nightmarish 9-0 demolition at the hands of Kuwait. Having ended on the wrong side of a 4-2 scoreline on their only previous visit to Thailand, another thumping defeat emerges as a realistic prospect for the East Asian minnows.