The national women’s soccer squad lost 0-4 to the Philippines in the third Group A match of the 2022 Asean Football Federation (AFF) Championships in Manila last night.
Kicking off at the Rizal Memorial Stadium, the national squad was put under tremendous pressure before the hosts broke the deadlock through Sara Eggesvik’s goal from outside the penalty box in the 32nd minute.
Stunned, the Malayan Tigress tried to launch a counter-attack but could not get through the opponent’s midfield before the Philippines added another goal in the 43rd minute through Katrina Guillou.
The Malaysian team coached by Jacob Joseph fell further behind three minutes into the second half when Quinley Quezada headed in a pass from Sara for the Philippines’ third goal.
The Filipinas’ ball possession allowed Anicka Castaneda to add to the misery of the Malaysians with a fourth goal in the 72nd minute.
It was the first defeat of the Malaysian team which recorded draws in the previous two matches against Singapore (0-0) and Indonesia (1-1).
Malaysia will continue the group stage against Thailand on July 10 and the Australian under-23 squad on July 12 with a must-win mission to grab the top two spots to advance to the knockout round.
In the previous edition in 2019, Malaysia failed to advance to the knockout round after finishing third in the group stage with two wins out of four matches.
The best achievement of the Malayan Tigress in the AFF Championship was in the 2007 edition which saw Malaysia advance to the semi-finals.