Philippine men’s national football team head coach Albert Capellas encourages local fans to come out and support them as they face defending champion Thailand in the first leg of the semifinals of the ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.

After finally breaking a six-year absence in the Final Four, Capellas encouraged fans to drop by the stadium to encourage the Nationals as they go up against the War Elephants. 

The second leg of the semifinals will be on 30 December at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok.

“I hope my players will have our fans at home. We will need them,” Capellas said.

“We need a full stadium and we will try to do our best to beat Thailand. I hope it will not be easy for them to win. For me our plan was to keep the game hot until the end.”

The winner of this two-legged semifinals will face either Vietnam or Singapore in the final on 2 January.

With team captain Amani Aguinaldo getting suspended after accumulating two yellow cards in the group stages, defenders Adrian Ugelvik, Christian Rontini and Kike Linares will have to step up as they try to hold off the War Elephants on home soil.

Also reportedly suiting up for the national team is Filipino-Spanish defender Santi Rublico of CU Collado Villalba, making this his debut in the prestigious biennial regional tournament.

The Philippines is tipped to go all out against the Thais, who will be bannered by Patrik Gustavsson, Suphanat Mueanta, and Teerasak Poeiphimai, the troika that carries the scoring load in the group stages.