The Iran and Philippines women’s football teams will meet for the first time at the inaugural match of the AFC Asian Cup group B qualifier at the Bangabandhu National Stadium at 4pm today. Iran's Portuguese coach Helena Costa said at the pre-match press conference yesterday that her only goal was to qualify and that her team would fight, regardless of who was favourite. Iran started their preparation for the qualifiers on October last year and formed their team after carefully observing the many teams in the three divisions of football in Iran. "We played preparation matches against Jordan in February and then a tournament in Russia. We had a lot of experience. We know it's very difficult. Considering the ranking, Thailand are the favourites but we want to qualify," said the former Benfica youth boys’ head coach. "Every team is difficult. We take it as big challenge, no chance of taking any side lightly," she said when asked about today's opponents. Iran was the first team to arrive in Dhaka and Helena said they had adjusted to the weather conditions. "We earlier expected weather would be tough for us, but we are lucky that we adopted the condition fast," she said. Despite being ranked far lower than Iran or Thailand, the Filipina’s were hopeful of making it to the next round. "Why not possible? It's possible to qualify. We will play with our tactics. This team is very young but they are capable of beating them," said the coach.
Thursday, April 25, 2024
