One man sold all his chickens to travel to the game while thousands were denied tickets when they went on sale for the game at Jakarta's 70,000-capacity national stadium.
Thursday's match, which Indonesia won 1-0, was a semi-final first leg in the ASEAN Cup, a two-yearly tournament for the national teams of South-East Asia which attracts little interest outside the region.
Controversial Uruguay-born striker Cristian Gonzales, who has been involved in a series of spats since moving to Indonesia seven years ago and is nicknamed "Loco" (the Crazy One), headed the only goal.
Tens of thousands of thrilled Indonesians turned the inside and outside of Jakarta's main stadium crimson, their national team's colour, as a football-mad nation starved of international success exhausted the ticket supply.
Organisers put up giant screens outside to cater for those who could not get tickets and the crowd blew trumpets and sang the country's "Garuda" football chant.
Coached by Austrian Alfred Riedl, Indonesia's run has revived hopes for many Indonesians constantly disappointed by poor performances.
"This time Indonesia must win, we haven't had a victory in a long time. I mean come on, we have more people (than the Philippines). What's so hard in finding 11 good players?" an Indonesian man queuing outside the stadium told local Metro TV before the game.
Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous country with around 240 million people but has played only once at the World Cup, in 1938.
The team's struggles in the past decade have been blamed on bad management, poor funding and a lack of depth of quality players, with one fan so frustated in a match in January that he ran onto the pitch to try to score a goal for the team.
