Filipinas suffer 8-0 annihilation vs mighty Matildas

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine women’s national football team’s Olympic hopes suffered a big blow on Sunday as they absorbed an absolute beating, losing 8-nil to World No. 11 Australia at the Optus Stadium in Perth.

In front of a sold-out crowd of 60,000 Matildas fans, Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord each scored a hat-trick to rebound from a subpar 2-0 win over Iran in their opener.

Mary Fowler opened the floodgates early when she got past Olivia McDaniel in the 15th minute after a beautiful touch pass from Foord, which got her enough space to use the post and score the game’s opening goal.

Not long after, Matildas skipper Kerr doubled their lead in the 19th minute, thanks again to the opportunity-producing prowess of Foord, threading through the Filipinas backline time and time again.

After helping produce the first two goals, Foord then scored in quick succession past the half hour mark to make it 4-nil in favor of the Matildas after 33 minutes of play.

Kerr further frustrated the Filipinas when she found the back of the net in added time before the half to make it a 5-goal rout halfway through.

She then picked up where she left off when she got her hat trick shortly after action resumed at the 46th minute.

Foord scored her third and final goal as well 10 minutes after.

Adding the icing on the cake was substitute Clare Wheeler who made it an 8-goal cushion at the 72nd minute.

Mark Torcaso’s side now must have to perform exceptionally well against Iran on Wednesday, November 1, to have a chance to move on to the third round.

Only the group winners and the best runner-up among the three groups move on.

As it stands, the Filipinas have a goal difference of -5, they will have to make this up with a rout against the Iranians to keep their Olympics hopes alive.