Players of the Philippine Women’s National Football Team celebrate after scoring a goal against Hong Kong during their match on Sept. 25 in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. | Photo from the AFC Asian Cup Facebook Page.
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Philippine Women’s National Football Team will have their backs against the wall after being grouped with formidable foes in the 2022 Asian Footbal Confederation (AFC) Women’s Asian Cup in India.
The official grouping was announced on October 28 during the official draw to determine what nations will vie in the group stage.
The PWNT or the Philippine Malditas were drawn under Group B together with the FIFA World No. 11 team, Australia, World No. 39 Thailand, World No. 96 Indonesia.
On paper, the PWNT has a very good winning chance against Indonesia since they are ranked higher than the latter at No. 68 in the current FIFA women’s global football rankings.
For the newly hired Aussie coach of the Malditas, Alen Stajcic, the team can now compete against any country in the world with how they progressed over the years.
“The good part for us is we now know how we play and we can really focus on targeting that first match and making sure we are ready to go. We’ve got a good team, this team has progressed over the last three or four years, and they’ve showed that they can compete with all the countries in the world,” said Stajcic in a Philippine Football Federation (PFF) statement.
Stajcic was recently hired this month replacing Marlon Maro who was transferred to PFF’s Coaching Education department.
The Malditas earned their ticket to the AFC Women’s Asian Cup after dominating the Group F of the qualifying tournament in September in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
They defeated both Hong Kong and Nepal in their campaign there.
Meanwhile, host country, India is under Group A with China, Chinese-Taipei (Taiwan), and Iran while Group C is composed of Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Myanmar.
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