PH Malditas celebrate opening win the AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers. PHOTO/Asian Football Confederation
MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine national women’s football team kicked off its campaign in the 2022 AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualification in style.
Trailing and press for time, the Philippines mounted a dramatic comeback to beat Nepal, 2-1, in Group F Saturday night at Jar Stadium in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
Tahnai Annis and substitute Camille Wilson delivered the late goals for the Philippines, which played catchup early.
WHAT. A. COMEBACK!!!!!!!!!!
FULL-TIME: Nepal🇳🇵1 – 2 🇵🇭Philippines
⚽️89' Tahnai Annis
⚽️90+2' Camille Wilson#PFF#PHIWNT#WAC2022#RememberTheGoal#LabanFilipinas#ParaSaBayan pic.twitter.com/RecfWnPNPF— Philippine Football Federation (@philfootball) September 18, 2021
Bimala Chaudhary opened the scoring with a header for Nepal in the ninth minute.
But the Filipino female booters, who are seeing action for the first time since the 2019 Southeast Asian Games, dug deep–with Annis providing the equalizer in the 90th minute and Wilson coming through–to salvage the victory.
The Philippines, which needs to top its group to qualify for the Asian Cup in India, faces Hong Kong next on September 24.