The win means Thailand are the early leaders, ahead of Saudi Arabia who defeated Oman 2-1, with Tuesday’s win at the Abdullah Khalifa Stadium the first time the Southeast Asian side have won their opening AFC Asian Cup™ match in eight attempts.
“It is a difficult one because it’s the first one (match) but we got the three points, so of course we are very happy (with the result),” said Ishii.

“Part of the implementation of the strategy is to bring the players who understand what we want to do. It’s the connection between players that enabled us to get a good result

“We need to look forward, to go step by step. The Thai players that we have in the squad, perhaps there are gaps between the players but we have a good attack and that is something we can build on as the tournament goes on.”

Buriram United forward Supachai Chaided was the toast of the team, grabbing a brace to give Thailand only their third win at the continental showpiece.

Together with Suphanat Mueanta and Supachok Sarachat, the trio combined to devastating effect and could have scored more had it not been for a couple of shots hitting the woodwork.

On the opposite end, there was despair for Stefan Tarkovic as Kyrgyz Republic suffered a losing start and for the first time, lost by more than a single goal in their five matches at the AFC Asian Cup thus far.

Joel Kojo and Kimi Merk carried little threat in attack and sluggishness in defence to recover second balls allowed Supachai time and space to find the back of the net, the two areas Tarkovic will be targeting improvement.

“Difficult match for us and our performance did not meet our expectations the way we wanted to play in this first game in the group,” said Tarkovic.

“We knew Thailand and us are at the same level so it was important to win this game for how we wanted the group to develop.

“Football is a game where we have to be strong in the boxes. Maybe we did well in between but we didn’t show a good enough level in the two boxes.

“It’s still open, we still have another two matches. We know Saudi Arabia will be a big challenge. Oman is strong but we have beaten them before.”