By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Philippine men’s national football team didn’t need any warm-ups after crushing the visiting Maldives squad, 4-1, during their opening match in the third round of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup qualifying tournament on March 25, 2025, at the New Clark City Stadium in Tarlac.
The Filipino booters savored the atmosphere of their home pitch to quickly race to a comfortable 2-0 advantage in the first 45 minutes of action.
Drawing first blood for the home team was Jefferson Tabinas who only needed six minutes to cruise past Maldives’ goalkeeper generated from Randy Schneider’s corner kick.
Initially, it was Paul Tabinas (Jefferson’s brother) who first got contact with the corner kick pass, but his tap was cleaned up by Jefferson that put the PHL first on board.
11 minutes after Tabinas’ opening goal, Bjorn Kristensen doubled the PHL’s cushion by finishing Schneider’s through ball set up in the penalty area.
The Filipinos had two chances to add to their scoring tally before the first half was about to end but their final two attempts went past Maldives’ goalpost and bounced too strongly off the bar.
Just when the PHL thought they could play keep away and practice their sets, Maldives had other plans and threatened to comeback after scoring the first goal in the second half at the 62nd minute.
All thanks to their forward Ali Fasir, who ignited their come-from-behind win hopes with a precise strike in the middle of the penalty area.
Unfortunately, their comeback rally was trimmed short after Schneider’s quick tap in the 77th minute, followed by a sweet conversion from Sandro Reyes in the extension period.
The next scheduled match for the Albert Capellas-led squad is a highly anticipated clash with Tajikistan on June 10, 2025. Ranked 46 places higher than the PHL, Tajikistan is also fresh from a win after escaping Timor Leste by a point, 1-0.
“It’s these type of games that we have to win if we want to qualify. It was at home. It was our first game. It’s always very important to start with a win,” said Capellas after their 1-0 start.
