The Philippine national men’s football team wants to feel its home court advantage when it battles Iraq in the second round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers on Tuesday at the Rizal Memorial Football Stadium.
National team head coach Tom Saintfiet said he hopes Filipino fans could match the intensity that the Iraqis had when they faced them in their first match last Friday at the Basra International Stadium.
With a noisy crowd at their side, the Iraqis booked a 1-0 win following an 84th minute goal from Mohanad Ali.
“When we played against Iraq in front of 63,000 to 64,000 Iraqi fans, that’s impressive but you prefer to have the fans on your side so together with the fans, we can hopefully make it again very tough against Iraq,” Saintfiet said.
“Because they are now warned and we will try to find solutions so we will need the support of our 12th man to beat the 11 players from Iraq.”
The Lions of Mesopotamia are currently on top of Group F with three wins for nine points while the Filipinos are currently at the fourth spot with one point behind a 0-1-2 win-draw-loss record.
The Philippines needs to make it to the top two spots in the group to advance to the third round.
