Philippines moved through to the last four of the 2014 AFF Suzuki Cup with a game to spare after claiming an emphatic 4-0 win over Indonesia in Hanoi on Tuesday evening.
Having opened their Group A campaign on Saturday with a 4-1 win over Laos, the Azkals knew another victory would be enough to secure a top-two finish. They duly achieved that at the My Dinh National Stadium against the hapless Garuda who played the last quarter of the game with 10 men after a red card to defender Rizki Pora.
The deadlock was broken after 16 minutes through a Phil Younghusband penalty, before second-half strikes by Manny Ott, Martin Steuble and Rob Gier wrapped up a ruthless display from Thomas Dooley's charges.
After a lively start which saw them threaten inside the opening 10 minutes through efforts from Patrick Reichelt and Misagh Bahadoran, Philippines were handed the perfect opportunity to edge ahead when they were awarded a penalty in the 15th minute after the latter had been brought down inside the box by Firman Utina.
It was Younghusband who stepped up to the spot for his side and coolly fired them ahead, planting a powerful effort beyond Kurnia Meiga's despairing dive.
Indonesia did have a couple of chances to equalise but Sergio van Dijk was only able to head over a minute on the half-hour mark after being picked out by Zulham Zamrun's corner, before opposition keeper Patrick Deyto produced a fine save to prevent Daisuke Sato from nodding into his own goal just before half-time.
Nonetheless, it was Philippines who had largely controlled proceedings in the opening 45minutes and could even have extended their lead, had the likes of Reichelt, Bahadoran and Simone Rota all been able to make more from decent openings.
But seven minutes after the restart, there was no denying them after Bahadoran found space down the left and laid the ball back into the path of Ott, who unleashed a stunning strike from the edge of the box that had Meiga beaten all ends up.
Things got worse for Meiga eight minutes after the hour mark when his handling of a back-pass handed the opponents an indirect free-kick inside the box. Younghusband quickly laid off the set piece to Steuble for the midfielder to slot into an unguarded net.
To add insult to injury, the Indonesians then found themselves down to ten men when Rizki Pora was shown a straight red in the 73rd minute after committing a last-man foul on Younghusband.
And five minutes later, the thrashing was completed as substitute Gier poked home on the rebound from six yards out, after his initial header from an Ott cross had come back off the foot of the post.
Philippines are now through to the semifinals for the third tournament running, while four time finalists Garuda are almost certain to be eliminated in the group stages.