The Philippine women’s football team suffered a huge blow to its Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup bid as it bowed to Thailand, 0-1, in the Group B Qualifiers on Thursday night at the Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The Malditas surrendered a first-half goal to Nisa Romyen as they failed to build on their opening day 6-0 victory over Iran on Tuesday.
Iran beat Bangladesh, 2-0, in the day’s other game.
“I take full responsibility for the loss,” Malditas coach Ernie Nierras said in a statement posted on the team’s Facebook page. “The girls played so hard, but unfortunately luck was not on our side.”
The Filipinas appeared to have seen a glimmer of hope three minutes before second-half stoppage time when they were reported to have scored the equalizer, only to be confirmed it was a “clerical error.”
“There was no disallowed goal during our match,” Nierras said. “The shot was not from a free kick. It came a few minutes earlier.”
As it stands, the Malditas, with three points and a goal difference of +5, are in second place behind Thailand, which has six points and a +10 GD to show.
The Filipinas must not only hope for a Thailand loss to Iran on the last day of the tournament, they must also beat the host team by at least six goals to have a chance to advance to the main tournament.
Only the winner of the competition gains entry to the Asian Cup next year.
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