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Indonesia, Thailand meet again in AFF Suzuki Cup final -- what happened last time out?

After almost a month of gruelling action, AFF Suzuki Cup 2020 is down to its final two teams with Indonesia and Thailand facing off in the decider -- starting with Wednesday's first leg at Singapore's National Stadium.

The contest is already an eagerly-anticipated affair with favourites Thailand looking to win a record-extending 6th title, while underdogs Indonesia -- five-time runners up in the past -- hoping to end 25 years of hurt by becoming champions of Southeast Asia for the first time ever.

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To add further intrigue to the tie, both teams have faced off in the final duel for glory on three previous occasions, with the most recent coming just two editions ago.

Here, we take a look back at how events transpired at the 2016 Suzuki Cup.

Group stage

Fittingly, given they were the two teams who ultimately reached the final, Thailand and Indonesia kicked off proceedings at the tournament with their Group A opener in what proved to be a six-goal thriller.

Although the Thais had raced into a 2-0 lead at halftime courtesy of goals from Peerapat Notchaiya and Teerasil Dangda, two goals in four minutes by Boaz Solossa and Lerby Eliandry pulled Indonesia level by the 56th minute.

But Thailand's class would ultimately prevail as Teerasil would go on to score twice more and complete his hat-trick to seal a 4-2 win.

The War Elephants would go on to claim 1-0 triumphs over Singapore and Philippines -- both through late goals from Sarawut Masuk -- to finish top of the group with a perfect record of three wins, but things were certainly far from straightforward for the Indonesians.

After a 2-2 draw against hosts Philippines, Indonesia went into their final Group A tie against Singapore with everything on the line and were initially trailing to an acrobatic Khairul Amri effort.

Andik Vermansyah did however fire them level shortly after the hour mark and then, with five minutes remaining, Stefano Lilipaly popped up with the winning goal to send Indonesia through to the semifinals for the first time in six years.

Semifinals

With Vietnam matching Thailand in racking up three consecutive wins over in Group B, they headed into their last-four clash against Indonesia as the favourites only to fall to a 2-1 first-leg defeat.

The Indonesians appeared to be coasting into the final after edging further ahead by opening the scoring in the return encounter through Lilipaly's 54th-minute effort, only for Vu Van Thanh and Vu Minh Tuan to score late on and look to have forced extra-time.

In truly dramatic fashion, Indonesia were then awarded a penalty deep into injury-time following a foul inside the area by Vietnam goalkeeper Tran Nguyen Manh, whose subsequent red card forced defender Que Ngoc Hai to don the gloves as a stand-in custodian.

Despite the pressure, Manahati Lestusen would keep his cool to convert the spot-kick in the 97th minute to send his team through 4-3 on aggregate.

Over in the other semifinal, Thailand had a far more comfortable journey into the decider from the time a Teerasil double gave them a 2-0 first-leg win over Myanmar.

Any hopes of a Myanmar fightback in the second leg were effectively ended when Sarawut scored after 33 minutes, before Theerathon Bunmathan, Siroch Chatthong and Chanathip Songkrasin all got in on the act to seal a resounding 6-0 aggregate victory for Thailand.

Final

For the third time in tournament history, but the first since 2002, Thailand and Indonesia would do battle for the status of kings of Southeast Asian football.

Given Thailand were the more-fancied of the two teams, it was no surprise that they broke the deadlock through yet another Teerasil goal -- his 6th of the edition -- three minutes after the half-hour mark.

Yet, a stirring fightback by Indonesia -- fuelled by strikes from Rizky Pora and Hansamu Yama -- would hand them a remarkable 2-1 first-leg win as the Thais fell to their first defeat of the tournament.

Just when it looked as though Indonesia would finally end their long wait to taste Suzuki Cup glory, it was Siroch who would emerge as the saviour for the Thais as he bagged twice to hand his team a 2-0 second-leg triumph to seal a record fifth crown 3-2 on aggregate.