The World Cup-bound Philippine Women’s National Football Yeam will shoot for the Olympics starting in April 2023 in a group of tough opponents.

In Thursday’s draw for the 2024 Olympic women’s football tournament qualifiers – Asian zone in Kuala Lumpur, the Filipinas were placed in Group E of the first round and are grouped with Hong Kong, Tajikistan, and Pakistan.

The Filipinas are the top seed of their group, being the 53rd best team in the world.

World number 77 Hong Kong is historically the toughest opponent of the Filipinas in the group, having a five win, two draw, and three loss winning record against the top seed.

Their previous game was for the Asian Cup qualification in September 2021, when a late goal by Chandler McDaniel sealed the Filipinas’ ticket to the Asian Cup in a 2-1 win against the Chinese autonomous territory.

Third seed Tajikistan lost two home games versus the Filipinas in their head-to-head matchup, the latest of which was a 1-3 drubbing in the Tokyo Olympic qualifying tournament in November 2018.

A year prior, the Filipinas outclassed the Tajiks, 8-0, in the 2018 Asian Cup qualification in April 2017.

Pakistan will be a first time opponent for the Filipinas as the South Asian squad is being bannered by three booters from the Women’s Premier League led by Nadia Khan of Doncaster Rovers.

The venue of the Group E tournament is to be determined as of press time.

Only the top team in each group will qualify to the second round of the Asian zone qualification.

Only two teams from the Asian Football Confederation (which includes Australia) have slots in the Olympics.

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