(Anadolu photo)
MANILA – The Philippine women's under-17 football team clinched a spot in the second round of the AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup Qualifiers after blanking Lebanon, 2-0, on Wednesday night at the Guam FA National Training Center in Dededo, Guam.
Defender Bella Alamo scored the breakthrough goal for the Filipinas in the 68th minute after she threaded through the right side of the penalty box.
Nina Mathelus, the breakout star for the U-17 Filipinas, sealed the win with a penalty in the 90th minute.
The 14-year-old debuted for the national team in style after scoring a hat trick in a 3-1 win against host nation Guam in the Group G opener.
For sweeping their group, the Filipinas join Vietnam, which ruled Group C, as the first teams into the second round with the rest of the first round still ongoing.
The eight first-round survivors will be grouped into two pools of four in the next round, and the top two teams of each group after the second round will join outright qualifiers Indonesia, Japan, North Korea and China in the AFC U-17 Women's Asian Cup next year in Jakarta. (PNA)
