Philippines stun Malaysia in ASEAN U-23 Championship opener

The 2025 ASEAN U-23 Championship began with a huge upset as Philippines claimed a 2-0 win over Malaysia in the Group A opener. #aseanu23championship #mandiricup2025 #aseanutdfc

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At the most-recent ASEAN Championship at the end of last year, Malaysia suffered a disappointing group-stage elimination have reached the semifinals back in 2022.

On the other hand, a resurgent Philippines would exceed all expectations in their return to the last four for the first time since 2018.

As the latest edition of the ASEAN U-23 Championship — officially known as the ASEAN U-23 Mandiri Cup 2025 — began on Tuesday, the contrasting fortunes of both teams continued as the competition kicked off with a big upset.

Having never made it out of the group stage at the tournament previously, Philippines could not have made a better start as a clinical and resilient display saw them record an impressive 2-0 win over the Malaysians to tentatively move top of Group A — ahead of hosts Indonesia taking on Brunei Darussalam later on in the evening.

The damage was dealt in the first half through a finely-taken double by Otu Banatao, who — at the age of just 18 — has immediately staked a claim to be one to watch for the future.

*Catch all the ASEAN U-23 Championship action live on the ASEAN United FC YouTube channel here!

Seemingly content to let Malaysia dominate possession from the opening whistle, Philippines barely looked flustered and instead were well setup behind the ball, especially with captain Gavin Muens cutting an authoritative sitting just in front of the back four.

His composure both with and without the ball caught the eye early on, but it was not long before another American-born prospect in Banatao stole the show.

With just nine minutes on the clock, a long diagonal ball played in behind the Malaysia defence released Javier Mariona — whose electric pace would see him burst past an opponent to hit the byline before cutting the ball back across the face of goal for an onrushing Banatao to stab home from six yards.

Five minutes before halftime, Philippines had more joy in similar fashion.

This time, it was Uriel Dalapo breaking down the left and while he did not motor at the same speed as Mariona, his sheer enterprise would see him create enough space to thread a slide-rule pass to Banatao — who was someone left unattended on the edge of the area to coolly send another unerring finish past Zulhilmi Sharani.

Given Philippines’ initial rise from minnows of Southeast Asian football to a force to be reckoned with in the early to mid 2010s was ignited by the introduction of a plethora of naturalised players of Filipino descent, there has long been some debate over their longer-term prospects.

Truth to be told, their record has never been the greatest.

At the last Southeast Asian Games, another U-23 competition, they drew one and lost three of their matches while scoring just once and conceding eight goals.

While they still benefit from procuring overseas-born and bred heritage players, even at U-23 level, Tuesday’s result was certainly another statement that the future could be very bright for Filipino football.

Contrastingly, Malaysian football looks to be at a crossroads — although the senior team have performed well recently with a perfect start of two wins to third round of qualifiers for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup, including an impressive 4-0 rout of reigning ASEAN champions Vietnam last month.

That triumph was inspired by a sudden influx of their own heritage imports.

On Tuesday, with an almost-entirely local-bred team — and even Scottish-born Fergus Tierney grew up in Malaysia — they looked raw at best.

It certainly was not for a lack of trying.

Malaysia actually finished with a staggering 70% of possession. They were denied twice by the woodwork, including a brilliant individual attempt by Haqimi Azim Rosli, had a goal disallowed for a foul on Philippines goalkeeper Nicholas Guimarães and just failed to capitalise on numerous other chances.

Guimarães produced a brave save from point-blank range on the recovery after Haqimi’s effort to deny Aliff Izwan, while Haykal Danish somehow tripped over the turf just when he was set to round the Philippines goalkeeper and advance towards an unguarded net.

An energetic charge down the left by Faris Danish saw his shot parried back into the danger area by Guimarães but, just when Tierney seemed destined to pounce on the rebound, a superb last-ditch tackle by Ziggy Taningco saved a certain goal.

It was far from a poor display by Malaysia but the result will undeniably be viewed as a real disappointment from all quarters.

They have at least another two matches at the ASEAN U-23 Championship to arrest this perceived slide, while Philippines will only be looking to rise even higher.me surgery at the back.

But that can wait. For tonight, England can enjoy this. They can count themselves very fortunate.