T

he 10-man Indonesian team emerged bruised and battered Tuesday after a painful 0-4 loss to the Philippines in their Group A match in the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup at My Dinh National Stadium in Hanoi.

Indonesia'€™s loss ensured a semifinal berth for the Philippines. A final ticket to the semifinals is still up for grabs, however, as much depends upon the results of Friday'€™s final round-robin matches.

Vietnam edged closer to the semifinals after besting Laos 3-0. With two losses, Laos has been all but eliminated from the tournament.

Indonesia sits third in the group tally after having collecting one point in two previous matches. Last week, the team drew with Vietnam 2-2.

Indonesia coach Alfred Riedl said that the Philippines were simply better conditioned and better skilled.

'€œYou saw today a fit team play an unfit team,'€ he said as quoted on the Suzuki Cup website, affsuzukicup.com. '€œI am surprised by the result. I thought we could challenge this team.'€

Riedl blamed a tight schedule in the Indonesian Soccer League as the reason for his players'€™ fatigue, Antara reported.

Looking ahead to the match against Laos, Riedl said he hoped his players battled hard. He pledged to leave the national team if he failed to help Indonesia take home the championship.

'€œI am obviously very happy that we have reached the semifinals [after just] the second game, as we didn'€™t expect that when we came over here,'€ said Philippines coach Thomas Dooley, as quoted by Reuters.

'€œI think we controlled the game from the very beginning. We had even more chances to score a goal, but I am happy with 4-0,'€ he added.

In Tuesday'€™s match, the Philippines dominated from the first kick.

The Azkals '€” as the Philippines squad is called '€” took the lead 15 minutes into the match after striker Phil Younghusband converted from the penalty spot after Misagh Bahadoran was pulled down in the box.

The 1-0 score remained until half time.

Midfielder Manuel Ott made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute with a long-range goal.

With time working against him, Riedl substituted Cristian Gonzales for Zulham Zamrun, hoping Gonzales could contribute some offense.

Instead, Indonesia conceded a third goal in the 67th minute from the Philippines'€™ Martin Steuble, who capitalized on apparent confusion among Indonesian players in the box.

The Philippines'€™ Rob Gier completed the rout in the 79th minute shortly after Indonesia'€™s Rizki Pora was shown a straight red card for taking down Younghusband as he was bearing down on goal.

Final matches in the group round will be held on Friday, with Indonesia set to face Laos and Vietnam scheduled to battle the Philippines.

Since the inauguration of the event in 1996, Indonesia has never won the championship, taking runners-up four times in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2010.