Group A is the tournament’s toughest section — defending champions Vietnam, four-time winners Singapore, a resurgent Indonesia, Cambodia, and Timor-Leste all compete for two semifinal spots. Group B is equally loaded with seven-time champions Thailand headlining against Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar, and Laos. Here is the complete match-by-match breakdown with predictions and Asian Handicap context from Nowgoal.
Group A contains the defending champion (Vietnam), one of the competition’s most decorated nations (Singapore with 4 titles), and a host nation (Indonesia) that has never won the ASEAN Championship but enters this edition with significant momentum from their recent FIFA ranking improvement. This is arguably the most competitive group in the tournament’s 30-year history.
Group B is nominally easier for Thailand than Group A’s top seeds will find it — but Philippines, who reached the 2024 semi-finals, and a resurgent Malaysia under new coach Tan Cheng Hoe make this more competitive than it first appears. Thailand’s new English coach Anthony Hudson has steadied the ship after the Ishii era but is yet to be tested in a major tournament.
If predictions hold, the 2026 final will be a repeat of 2024 — Vietnam vs Thailand. Vietnam won that final convincingly (5–3 on aggregate) and enter as favourites to become the first team since Thailand’s 2020–2022 back-to-back titles to defend their crown. The AH line on Nowgoal for a hypothetical final will be watched closely as the group stage concludes. Track all semi-final and final AH odds at nowgoal.net.