Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Manila: Myanmar secured a spot in Round 2 of qualifying for the 2013 AFC U-19 Women's Championship after a 4-0 victory over the Philippines on Friday.
Myanmar's second victory of the campaign ensured that they will not finish any lower than second in the Group C standings while hosts Philippines face a do-or-die match against Chinese Taipei on Sunday to see who advances to the next qualification phase alongside Yoshinori Kumada's side.
The top two sides in each of the three groups will advance to Qualification Round 2 where they will join Thailand and Vietnam. The eight teams will be divided into two groups of four and play a round-robin league in a centralised format with the top two teams meeting in a play-off to determine who advances to next year's AFC U-19 Women's Championship.
Forward Nilar Win opened the scoring with an 18th minute free-kick before May Thu Kyaw converted a cross from the right to double Myanmar's advantage on the hour mark.
The Philippines were caught out again just 60 seconds later when midfielder Win Theingi Tun scored her second of the qualifiers and with five minutes left on the clock Nilar Win scored another free-kick to complete the win and secure Myanmar's place in the second round of qualifiers for next year's AFC U-19 Women's Championship with one game to spare.
Despite taking their tally to seven goals in two matches, with just one conceded, Myanmar coach Kumada still sees room for improvement and has vowed there will be no let up from his side in their final match against Hong Kong, whose chances of a place in the next phase ended with Friday's 5-0 defeat to Chinese Taipei.
"Now, our defence is still weak," said the Japanese tactician.
"There are many formation systems for the defence that we have to change
"We always have respect for our opponents and for the next game we will be fielding our best players and play our best game in order to achieve the best result."
The Philippines, meanwhile, go into Sunday's final match knowing nothing less than a win against Chinese Taipei will suffice, and their coaching staff is well aware of the areas their team most improve following the defeat to Myanmar.
"Both teams played well, but we need more finishing, aggressiveness and discipline in defence", said assistant coach Franklin Cacacho.
"We had so many chances, but we just couldn't finish", added head coach Letecia Bautista, who is the only woman in the Philippines to hold a Class A coaching license issued by AFC-FIFA.
Photo: Football Philippines Magazine