THE Philippine Women’s National Football Team fell short in its opener in the 2023 Pinatar Cup after losing to Wales, 1-0, on Feb. 16 at the Pinatar Arena in San Pedro del Pinatar, Spain.

The Filipinas conceded a penalty by Kayleigh Green just before half time.

The Philippines had a strong performance in the second half but was unable to score an equalizer.

“We don’t like losing and we’ve spoken about that before but I’m really pleased with what we did tonight,” said Philippines head coach Alen Stajcic in a report posted at the Philippine Football Federation’s official website. “There are the usual issues of not being able to keep the ball better which is something we have to work on.”

The 2023 Pinatar Cup is one of the pocket tournaments that the Philippines is competing in as part of its preparation for the 2023 Fifa Women’s World Cup in New Zealand in July.

“For us to be in pre-season and the opposition right in the middle of their season, the jet lag, we’ve had delayed flights, we’ve had players ill and we’ve had players coming in really late to camp, that was an amazing effort—probably one of our best in terms of effort. We went up against players in the (women’s) super league and some of the big clubs as well so it was a really good effort and the team showed a lot of discipline defensively.”

Meanwhile, Iceland defeated Scotland, 2-0, in the other match.

The Philippines will play against Scotland on Feb. 18 at 10 p.m. (PH time).

The Philippines is the lowest ranked team in the four-squad tournament at No. 53 in the world. Iceland is ranked No. 16, Scotland is rated No. 25 and Wales is No. 32.

Iceland is currently first in the Pinatar Cup with three points and is just ahead on goal difference over Wales, which also has three points.The Philippines is at third with no points and is ahead of Scotland on goal difference.

The Philippines is Group A in the Fifa Women’s World Cup with host New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland. (EKA)