Sarina Bolden’s two early strikes set the tone as the Philippine Women’s National Football Team overwhelmed Hong Kong 4-0 to advance to the second round of the 2024 AFC Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament, Tuesday at the Hisor Central Stadium in Tajikistan.
The Western Sydney Wanderers standout put the ball at the back of the net in the 5th and 41st minutes of the match to give the Filipinas a huge two-goal lead.
Bolden has now scored 20 goals in 32 appearances for the Philippines.
Thanks to the win, the Filipinas moved on to the next round by topping Group E with nine points on the back of three straight wins.
They also secured a goal difference of plus-16 and did not concede a goal throughout the campaign.
“I thought we played well,” said coach Alen Stajcic. “We controlled the game well, probably our best control we’ve had this week here against a good opposition, an opposition 15 months ago we beat only 2-1 in the last minute. It just shows how much we’ve improved.”
The next round of Olympic qualifiers will take place in October this year with the groupings and hosts of the matches to be determined.
Meryll Serrano scored in the 44th minute of the match to give Stajcic’s wards a three-goal cushion just before the halftime break.
Quinley Quezada then completed the rout in the 53rd minute. She now has 22 goals in 43 international appearances for the country.
“A large part of the game was pretty good, but our finishing has to be better if we want to compete with the big nations in Asia. We’ve improved a lot but there’s still a lot of hardwork to do,” added Stajcic.
Hong Kong finished second in Group E with 6 points behind two wins and one defeat. In the other final match, Pakistan defeated Tajikistan 1-0 to finish third in the group.
Up next for the Filipinas is the 32nd Southeast Asian Games in Cambodia. They will open their campaign against Myanmar on May 3, 2023, at 8:30 PM Manila time.
Philippines XI: Sawicki, Long ©, Bolden Serrano, Eggesvik, Harrison, Barker, Cowart, O McDaniel (GK), Quezada, Guillou.
Hong Kong XI: Ng (GK), Sin, Ma, Chan W ©, Chung, Tsang M, Tsang P, Cheung, Kwok, So, Chan Y.
