After seeing his exciting, young charges book their place in the AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 final, Indonesia coach Shin Tae-yong admitted they went through "heaven and hell" to get there in Saturday's 4-2 semifinal second-leg win over Singapore after extra-time -- which saw them advance 5-3 on aggregate.
Having taken the lead through Ezra Walian's 11th-minute opener, Indonesian then conceded just moments after the opposition had Safuwan Baharudin sent off shortly before halftime.
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Singapore then went down to nine when Irfan Fandi also saw red, but remarkably took the lead in the 74th minute through a sublime Shahdan Sulaiman freekick.
It was the Indonesians' turn to equalise through Pratama Arhan's close-range finish with three minutes remaining only for the Lions to earn a penalty right after, with goalkeeper Nadeo Argawinata emerged as the hero as he denied Faris Ramli from the spot.
The numerical advantage eventually proved telling as Indonesia went on to score twice in extra-time to claim the victory, although there was still time for Singapore to get a third player sent off as Hassan Sunny was shown a straight red for a last-man foul.
"We literally went through heaven and hell during the match. It was not easy," said Shin.
"I think both teams fought really hard on the pitch. It was not an easy match. Our squad is relatively young so we just couldn't capitalise in moments when we should have taken the advantage by playing with more composure.
"I also told my boys that set pieces were something Singapore would be good at, so the fact that we conceded twice from such situations is something we have to work on moving forward.
"Overall, we must try to improve from here."
Having had a penalty decision go against them in the dying stages of Wednesday's first leg, which ended in a 1-1 draw, Indonesia enjoyed the rub of the green on Saturday with Safuwan's first booking seemingly harsh, while replays showed Arhan's equaliser should have been ruled out for offside.
Nonetheless, while the match officials on Saturday expectedly incurred the wrath of the Singapore fans, Shin does not believe there were any calls that were overly controversial.
"After watching the footage from the first leg, I thought we should have been given the penalty," added the South Korean.
"But for today's referee, I thought he was quite good. When a yellow card had to be shown, he showed it. When a red card had to be shown, he did as well."