Filipinas fall to Sweden in unofficial match

July 18 ------ The Philippine women's national football team fell to powerhouse Sweden, 1-5, in their last tune-up match before the FIFA Women's World Cup 2023.

According to a report from the Swedish national team, Arsenal's Stina Blackstenius accounted for three goals, with Barcelona's Fridolina Rolfö and Chelsea's Johanna Rytting Kaneryd also finding the back of the net. The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) did not identify the goal-scorer for the Filipinas.

The match was played behind closed doors in three 30-minute segments. "Of course, it is always important and nice to win football matches, and it is also good that we had the opportunity to give playing time to large parts of the squad," Sweden coach Peter Gerhardsson said. "Now we take this effort with us and continue to prepare in the best possible way towards the World Cup premiere against South Africa on Sunday." Sweden is in Group B of the World Cup with South Africa, Italy, and Argentina. They play their first game against South Africa on July 23 in Wellington.

Filipinas midfielder Quinley Quezada previously said that the unofficial friendly against Sweden should be a "great learning experience" for them. Ranked No. 3 in the world by FIFA, Sweden is ranked higher than any of the teams in the Philippines' group. "We're just trying to see the situations that we get into, see how we can grow from it, how we can learn. And we'll take what we can learn from that game and bring [them] to our World Cup matches," Quezada said.

The Filipinas are in Group A of the FIFA Women's World Cup along with co-host New Zealand, Switzerland, and Norway. After playing Switzerland on July 21, the Filipinas will face host New Zealand on July 25 in Wellington, before traveling back to Auckland for the duel with Norway on July 30 to wrap up the group stage.

Source: news.abs-cbn.com