Luck of the draw favors Pinay XI

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines seeks to make the most out of the favorable draw it got for the AFC Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers in April.

The Pinay booters found themselves in possibly the best and easiest bracket – Group A – with Jordan, the hosts for the 2018 Women’s Asian Cup final round, lower-ranked Bahrain, and “non-ranked” trio Iraq, United Arab Emirates and Takijistan after Saturday night’s draw in Amman.

Only Jordan ranks higher than the Philippines in the group and the Jordanians actually have automatic qualification to the final round as hosts. This means even if Jordan wins the Group A qualifiers to be held in Tajikistan, the slot will be given to the eventual runner-up.

The qualifiers are slated April 3-12 with Phl XI aiming for at least second to join the seeded teams, holder Japan, Australia, China plus Jordan in the main tournament next year.

Lady luck virtually smiled on Phl during the draw as it got to avoid powerhouses like Korea Republic, fourth placer in the 2014, and neighbors Thailand and Vietnam, both qualifiers in the previous tournament.

Korea Republic banners Group B, where it drew Uzbekistan, Hong Kong, India and host North Korea while Thailand leads Chinese Taipei, Lebanon, host Palestine and Guam in Group C and Vietnam has Myanmar, Iran, Syria and Singapore over in Group D.

The group winners will progress to the 2018 finals, which will also serve as qualifying event for the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup.

Aside from the Women’s Asian Cup qualifiers, the Filipinas likewise look forward to the Asean Football Federation Women’s Championship this year.