The Philippine women’s football team dropped a narrow 2-1 loss to Australia on Sunday to wrap up its campaign in the 2025 AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup Qualifiers at the Yunusobod Sports Complex in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The Philippines ended up with a 2-1-1 win-draw-loss card to finish third in Group C while Australia and Uzbekistan wound up first and second with a 3-0-0 and 2-1-1 records, respectively.
Although only the first two placers in each group will book an outright berth to the Asian Cup that China is hosting in May, the Philippines was still able to clinch a spot after finishing as the best third-placed team across the qualifiers.
In the Filipinas’ final qualifying game against the Australians, the latter got off to a hot start with Daisy Jane Arrowsmith escaping the defense of Judy Connolly to get her side on the board at the 13:22 mark of the first half as Philippine goalkeeper Samantha Hughes failed to put the stop.
The Philippines, though, struck back with Bella Flannigan finding the hole in the defense with just 30 seconds left before both teams headed to the halftime break.
But the Australians got another cushion thanks to a connection between Claudia Fruscalzo and Jessica Au, whose strong right kick got them a 2-1 lead just 18 seconds into the second half, and they hung on the rest of the way to complete their sweep of the qualifying tournament.
The Philippines, which was coming off a 2-0 win over Turkmenistan last Wednesday, absorbed their only loss in the qualifying tournament.
The Asian Cup will serve as a qualifier to the inaugural 2025 FIFA Futsal Women’s World Cup that the Philippines will host in November.
—JMB, GMA Integrated News
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