The Philippine women’s national football team lost 5-1 against powerhouse Sweden in their final tuneup before heading to the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023.
Stina Blackstenius scored three goals for Sweden, as Fridolina Rolfö and Johanna Rytting Kaneryd added one goal each in the closed-door match.
The Philippine Football Federation (PFF) did not identify the lone scorer for the Filipinas.
“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 [it] to our World Cup matches,” said Filipinas midfielder Quinley Quezada of their friendly against Sweden.
The Filipinas are in Group A of the Cup with co-hosts New Zealand, Switzerland, and Norway.
They will take on Switzerland on July 21 and New Zealand on July 25 in Wellington before traveling back to Auckland for the duel with Norway on July 30.
“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 in a report by the Swedish national team.
“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 clustered in Group B with South Africa, Italy, and Argentina. They play their first game against South Africa on July 23 in Wellington.
