THE Philippines gave Iran a scare before dropping a 1-0 loss to the two-time defending champion at the start of the AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup in Hohhot, China on Wednesday.
Iran broke the scoreless deadlock with two minutes and 59 seconds left in the match with Maral Torkaman slotting the only goal of the Group B match.
Filipina5 goalkeeper Samantha Hughes had a save on a shot by Sara Shirbeigi, who then caught the rebound and passed it to Torkaman who canned the goal to the relief of the world No. 9.
Filipina5 makes us proud
It remained an impressive showing for the Philippines after going toe-to-toe with the only champions of the tournament now on its third staging, especially being the last team to enter as the best third-placer during the qualifying stage last January.
“I think in today’s game, we played very well. We put our heart and soul. Iran is definitely one of the hardest teams and we believed we played our best game,” said Hughes.
On Friday, the Filipina5 will look to keep the momentum going and pick up a win over another highly-ranked team in Southeast Asian neighbor Vietnam, ranked No. 11 in the world.
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