DUSHANBE, Tajikistan – The Philippines kicks off its bid for a spot in the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday when it clashes with Pakistan in the first round of the AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament at Hisor Central Stadium here.
The match kicks off at 4 p.m. (7 p.m. in the Philippines) with the Filipinas hoping to kick off the qualifying phase on a positive note. Hong Kong and Tajikistan are also in the group with only the top team making the next round.
The second round has three groups that will already have higher seeded teams like Australia, China, Japan, Korea Republic and DPR Korea. The top teams in their group in the second round and the best second best team from the three groups moves into the two knockout matches that will determine Asia’s representatives in the Olympics.
“The Olympics is a massive event and we’ve never been to the final group stage ever before so trying to top this group and getting out of this group is a difficult assignment,” said Filipinas coach Alen Stajcic.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge and we’re confident we can get to the next round.”
The Filipinas, who are also preparing for the FIFA Women’s World Cup co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia late this year, last played in the Pinatar Cup in Spain in February, narrowly losing to Wales and Scotland.
Pakistan saw action in a four-nation tournament in Saudi Arabia, winning over Comoros, drawing Saudi Arabia and losing to Mauritius.
“Pakistan has just resumed playing recently and obviously they are emerging and developing and an unknown threat,” said Stajcic. “We don’t know how good they are. There’s always a little bit of anxiety because you don’t know what you’re going to get.”
The Filipinas are also playing against host Tajikistan at 7 p.m. (10 p.m. in Philippines) on Saturday, before clashing with Hong Kong at 4 p.m. (7 p.m. in Philippines) on Tuesday.
“Tajikistan is in a similar boat (like Pakistan),” said Stajcic. “They’re both unknowns in international football, but are starting to really emerge and develop as national teams. We’ve got to respect those countries because we don’t know what kind of game we’ll have until we actually get in there. In that respect, this makes it a difficult challenge.”
The match against Hong Kong will be the first time that the two countries will meet since the Filipinas pulled off a 2-1 win in the AFC Asian Cup Qualifying in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
“It was only 18 months ago that we scraped to a 2-1 win to qualify for the Asian Cup, we have to treat them with a lot of respect,” said Stajcic. “That’s going to be a tough battle, it could have easily been Hong Kong making it to the Asian Cup so we know that it was going to be a tricky assignment.”
