The Philippine national men’s football team rued its 0-1 loss to Thailand that put it on the brink of elimination in the ASEAN Championship.

Head coach Carles Cuadrat said the Nationals played well at the New Clark City Stadium in Tarlac last Tuesday, but a few defensive lapses caused them to concede the lone goal of the match courtesy of an 84th-minute header by Waris Choolthong.

With the loss, the Philippines was relegated to the fourth spot in Group B with one win and two losses along with a -1 goal difference, making it very difficult to advance to the next round.

Now, the Filipinos need a miracle to stay alive. First, they have to beat Malaysia by a huge margin on Saturday at the Kuala Lumpur Stadium and, second, hope that Thailand stuns Myanmar on the same day to keep their flickering hopes of advancing to the semifinals alive.

“We had the plan to create our chances in the first half by giving them possession and trying to get the space behind their fullbacks. Unfortunately, we didn’t get the first goal. In that kind of game, the team that scores first has a lot of options to control the game,” Cuadrat said.

“We had been working in training to avoid those spaces, and we allowed that space for the cross. It’s sad that all of the guys didn’t get the reward of at least one point.”

Cuadrat added that the Nationals will have to be at their best — and pray hard for stars to align — if they want to pull off a convincing victory and advance to the next round.

“Unfortunately, six points may not be enough to reach the semifinals. During the previous tournament, the Philippines qualified with six points, but that may not be sufficient this time because of goal difference,” Cuadrat said.

“We have to understand the situation. Our objective tonight was to secure at least one point, which would have taken us to seven and left qualification in our hands against Malaysia. The situation is now more difficult.”

Veteran midfielder Sandro Reyes said the squad remains determined to reach the semifinals even though the odds are stacked against them.

“We’ll give our all. We have four days to prepare and analyze the next game,” Reyes said.