Despite losing both the matches in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers, Bangladesh will be eager to maintain the fighting spirit against Philippines in their last match of group ‘B’ today at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at 7pm. Participating for the first time in the competition, Bangladesh were drubbed 9-0 by favourites Thailand in the opening match. But on Thursday, the same side fought hard in front of the home crowd and even thought they went down by 2-0 against Iran, there were signs of improvement. The confidence among the booters was evident in the second match while the running and passing were also quite up to the mark. The Bangladesh women’s would definitely want to start their last outing from where they finished and coach Syed Golam Jilani believes his girls have learnt a lot in these matches. “We had a lot of positives against Iran and such a performance can boost the team towards continuing the improvement. We have to keep it in mind that Philippines are a mighty opponent to our standards and we will look forward to concede lesser goals and continue our counter attacking strategy,” said Jilani. Philippines may wear a dejected look because they won’t have any chance of going to the final round no matter how big they win against Bangladesh, given that Thailand win or even draw against Iran in the first match of the day. If Iran beat Thailand by an impossible margin of 10 goals then Philippines can think of moving forward with a win against Bangladesh. Jilani, however, stated Philippines’ offence as more accomplished than Thailand’s. “They have got power and also some good individual players with good attacking flairs. We have to make our defence compact and have to be careful about not providing free spaces to the Philippines attackers,” said Jilani. Bangladeshi defence is expected to be under immense pressure as fast attackers like Jesse Anne Shugg, Heather Cook, Joana Houplin and Monika Lee will always try to sneak through them. The overlapping Sarah Cook’s neat crosses from the right flank will also create trouble for the Bangladesh defence as Philippines will enjoy the aerial superiority with their height. Meanwhile, the two hardworking Bangladeshi midfielders Mirona and Aungmra Ching Marma would like to continue their efforts and pave the way for striker Sabina Khatun in the opposition D-box. The home side attackers lacked the confidence of roaming in their opponents defence, but against Iran they raised their game in the dying stage to almost score a goal. At the back, Sabina Akhter, the Bangladesh goalie had gone through a hectic time and it would be another testing time for her. Bangladesh are yet to score a goal in the meet while they conceded 11 goals in two matches.