Two powerhouses of Southeast Asian football clash at Bishan Stadium on Wednesday as Indonesia and Vietnam meet with a spot in the semifinals of the 2020 AFF Suzuki Cup the likely prize that’s at stake.

Both nations have made a perfect start to the tournament in winning their first two games but Indonesian coach Shin Tae-yong has touched on the challenges his team faces mentally whilst also confirming he remains without key European-based forward Egy Maulana.

 “All the teams are here in a bubble which is affecting our players mentality and that’s something that might stop us from playing enjoyable football but the team is getting better in many areas.

“Unfortunately, Egy is not here yet and that could be one of the reasons why our attacking performance is not as good as I wanted but hopefully he’ll be available for the match against Malaysia.”

Shin, though, also dropped some cryptic hints that all might not well with the national squad but refused to go in details until after the match.

“We are preparing calmly however there have been some unexpected matters that we have to deal with but other than that we are ready.

“I won’t go into those issues now, I’ll save it for the post-match tomorrow and I will go in detail about it then.”

Vietnam, meanwhile, are one of only two nations yet to concede a goal at the tournament but their coach, Park Hang-seo, is a noted hard taskmaster and he argued in the buildup to the clash that they must improve defensively.

“Our defenders still have some issues and mistakes that we have seen in our first two matches and if we don’t remain focussed on every situation then that can be very dangerous for us so we have a lot of work to do to fix things defensively.”

Pressed on reports out of Indonesia that the Garuda coaching staff have suggested there are weaknesses in the wide defensive areas for Vietnam, Park welcomed that scrutiny and said that he’s also noticed avenues that his nation can exploit.

“If they feel that our wingbacks are not strong enough then they can attack us and that would be welcome so we say thanks for that information.

“Of course Indonesia played weaker teams in their first two matches and scored many goals but they also conceded three so we can see that this is an area that we can look to exploit.

“We hope they can play attacking football and that would be a good point for us in finding ways to beat them.”