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    Filipinas, Stajcic unperturbed as they face home bet New Zealand

    No added pressure for Philippines when they play NZ, says Stajcic. 'We don’t have to play against 25,000 people. We play against 11.'
    Jul 24, 2023
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    PHOTO: PWNT

    WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Philippines coach Alen Stajcic said the team is unperturbed about playing in front of home fans when the Filipinas play New Zealand on Tuesday at the Wellington Regional Stadium.

    Stajcic acknowledged that the Football Ferns will have the home field advantage for the match on Tuesday that is vital to their chances of proceeding to the next round.

    See Philippines braces for NZ squad different from their friendly faceoff

    But Stajcic said the Filipinas will have to stay focused and play their usual game against New Zealand.

    “Traditionally, being the host nation or a home team in any game of football is being an advantage over a hundred and fifty years of football,” said Stajcic during Monday’s pre-match press conference, when asked by the New Zealand press. “But fortunately, we don’t have to play against 25,000 people. We play against 11.

    “They have to block all that out and almost on the opposite of the spectrum, you have to embrace it. It’s a brilliant occasion for football and New Zealand and for our team and our country as well. So to be playing in front of such a big crowd and TV audience is a really special moment that will cherish for the rest of their lives,” said Stajcic.

    Katrina Guillou, Alen Stajcic

    The Football Ferns are fresh from their first-ever victory in the Fifa Women’s World Cup, beating Sweden, 1-0, last Thursday in front of 42,137 fans at Eden Park, the largest crowd to have ever attended a football match in the country.

    The Philippines though already had its share of matches played against a crowd cheering against them. A notable match on the road was during the 2021 Southeast Asian Games in Vietnam where they played against the host country in Hanoi in front of a packed stadium.

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    In a separate interview with Philippine media on Monday, Stajcic said that experience will be helpful for them.

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      Stajcic isn’t even discounting the possibility that Filipino fans will come in droves on Tuesday to match the New Zealand supporters, as shown in Dunedin during their first match against Switzerland.

      “There will probably be a lot of Filipino fans as well. The other night, it was 70, 80 percent Filipino fans. We have good preparation in that, by luck. We’ve had quite a number of games including the final at the Rizal where there were 8,000 or thereabouts. It was so loud that day, it felt like twenty, thirty thousand. So we played in front of big crowds in the SEA Games in the semifinal and we played Vietnam. There were sixteen, seventeen thousand in both games,” said Stajcic.

      When asked if the Filipinas would “crash the party” and stun the host, Stajcic said: “I don’t know. We want to crash the party. And it’s not really their party. It’s everyone’s party as well. It’s our party as well,” said Stajcic.

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      PHOTO: PWNT
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