Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Bocaue: The Philippines made a confident start to the second round of joint qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup with a 2-1 home win over Bahrain in Thursday’s Group H curtain raiser at the Philippines Sports Stadium.
Neither side could take the initiative in the opening period before substitute Misagh Bahadoran - a 23rd minute replacement for Stephan Schrock - broke the deadlock five minutes after the interval.
The home side doubled their advantage ten minutes later through Javier Patino, a two-time Thai Premier League winner with Buriram United prior to his move to Henan Jianye at the turn of the year.
Al Hidd midfielder Abdulwahab Al Malood reduced the deficit three minutes into second-half stoppage time but it was too little too late for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers as the Philippines held on for all three points.
The teams in Round 2 will compete according to a double round robin format, with the qualification matches held between June 11, 2015 to March 29, 2016.
The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup.
The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup finals.
Photo: AFP