June 6 ------ The Philippine men’s national football team is looking to salvage its slim chance in the preliminary joint qualifiers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and 2027 AFC Asian Cup when it faces Vietnam today at the Mỹ Đình National Stadium.
The Neil Etheridge-captained Pinoy booters are looking to exact revenge against the Vietnamese at 8 p.m., nearly seven months after their first encounter in the group stage. Still winless in the second round of their group campaign, the Philippines currently sits at the bottom of the Group F standings, with Iraq leading the way undefeated with a dominant +11 goal difference followed by Indonesia in second place. Now in a must-win scenario, the Filipinos are one loss away from being relegated to another qualification phase to progress to the next round, while also hoping Indonesia and Vietnam lose their remaining games.
The teams are pitted against each other in a home-and-away format, with the Philippines suffering back-to-back losses at the hands of Qatar last March. Under the guidance of new head coach Tom Saintfiet, the Philippines showed promise in its away match against Qatar, only conceding a lone last-minute goal in the first meeting before suffering a 0-5 loss at home.
Then led by the returning Michael Weiss in November last year, the Filipinos opened their campaign against the Vietnamese where they absorbed a 3-0 drubbing before ending the first window in a 1-1 draw against the visiting Indonesians. With only the top two sides from each pool advancing to the next round, the Philippines will lose the one, most straightforward path of qualifying to the World Cup. Since Saintfiet’s appointment, the Pinoy booters underwent multiple changes including shelving their long-time ‘Azkals’ nickname. With nothing to identify themselves with at the moment, the Filipinos are hoping to usher in a new era of football for the men’s side.
Source: mb.com.ph
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