There were no surprises in as far as the results were concerned but the home teams did stutter playing in front of their home fans before they were able to pick up the full points.

Malaysia recovered to beat Laos 3-1 in Kuala Lumpur , Myanmar came back for a 4-1 victory over Cambodia in Mandalay while Indonesia pounced on a 3-1 return over Timor Leste.

Only the Philippines – playing in their first match in Group B – did not suffer such drama in front of their home fans as they recorded their first full points by beating Singapore 1-0 in Bacolod City.

What it means potentially is that any team is capable of winning and picking up the full points at home or away.

And it spoke volumes of the way the matches are being played with away teams not overly defensive on the road while for the homesters, they will need to exorcise the demons of expectations.

Once again, the home fans came out in numbers with Malaysia recording almost 20,000 spectators at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil as the Mandalay populace came in just under 28,000 at the Mandalar Thiri Stadium.

The newly renovated Gelora Bung Karno Stadium witnessed some 15,000 loyalists for Indonesia while it was full capacity in Bacolod City for the Philippines.

It was another good match day for the AFF Suzuki Cup with the contest still as open as it was on the first day of competition.

But with the meet moving into the crucial stages, teams will be stepping up a gear while fans will also be looking at some big matches on the cards.

While Panaad Park and Stadium in Bacolod City had previously played hosts to the ASEAN Football Championship qualifiers back in 2006, the Mandalar Thiri Stadium in Mandalay was playing hosts for the first time ever.

And talking about first timers, the second match day also saw the debut of former England manager Sven Goran Eriksson for the Philippines while Keisuke Honda finally showed up for the Cambodian game after giving it a miss in Phnom Penh.

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