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On June 15, Beijing time, the World Preliminary Round of 40 in Asia continued, and at 23:00 in the evening, the Philippines played against the Maldives. Before this match, both sides had decided not to qualify for the Round of 12, which was a battle of honor for both sides. After 90 minutes of competition, the Philippines was forced to draw 1-1 by the Maldives and broke out.
The suspense of the Group A ranking has been revealed, Syria locked in the first and top 12 seats in the group, the national football team locked the second place in the group, and it can be qualified by a draw, the Philippines ranked third with 10 points, the Maldives ranked fourth with 6 points, and Guam was at the bottom of the 8 consecutive defeats with 0 points. Since the restart of the World Preliminary Round, the Philippines has lost 0-2 to the national football team and 3-0 to Guam, while the Maldives has lost 0-4 to Syria and 0-5 to the national football team. The last time the two sides met, the Philippines defeated the Maldives 2-1. In terms of FIFA's latest world rankings, the Philippines ranks 125th in the world and the Maldives ranks 155th, and in terms of strength, the Philippines undoubtedly has the upper hand.
However, the Maldives showed enough resilience in the first half, whether it was the possession rate or the number of dangerous attacks and shots on goal, the Maldives did not fall behind, and even had a slight advantage. Although in the 19th minute, the Philippines took a 1-0 lead with Girardo's long-range shot. But the Maldives did not collapse, but soon returned to color. In the 25th minute, the Maldives collided with the wall in front of the field, and Ali El Fasher scored a low shot into the penalty area to make it 1-1. The goal caught the Philippines off guard, they were difficult to attack, and at one point they were pressed by the Maldives. At the end of the first half, players from both sides almost broke out into clashes, and the two teams drew 1-1 at halftime.
In the second half, the Philippines made adjustments and continuously put pressure on the Maldives team in front of the goal. The Maldives side quickly stabilized the situation, slowed down the pace, dared to control the ball, but the Philippines lost patience, many of them were attacking with big feet, and the two sides clashed again in the 57th minute. In the second half, although the Philippines attacked more aggressively, the Maldives defense was more tenacious and did not give the opponent the opportunity to rewrite the score. In the end, the Maldives drew 1-1 with the Philippines, scored points in the battle of honors, and left the top 40 with their heads held high. The Philippines and Maldives had a 29-11 shooting gap.
The match was undoubtedly a backlash, with Maldives scoring the first and only point outside of the double Guam team. But for the Maldives team, that was enough. Today's Maldives team is no longer the brisket that was swept 10-1 by the national football team 20 years ago. Those who once had the impression of fish belly, now have made significant progress, and they will be able to wrestle with Asian third- and fourth-rate teams in the future.