Slovenia dealt the Philippine women’s football squad a 1-0 defeat in the bronze medal match of the 2024 Pinatar Cup at the Pinatar Arena Wednesday in Murcia, Spain.
A goal from defender Lana Golob in the fifth minute gave the Slovenians the win and the bronze, leaving the Philippines without a win in the pre-season tournament following a 2-0 loss to Scotland last week.
This is the second year the Philippines wound up empty-handed in this Spanish tournament since joining last year to prepare for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Finland, which trashed the Philippines, 4-0, in a friendly match before the tournament, won it all after beating Scotland, 1-1 (5-4).
Filipinas head coach Mark Torcaso said having the girls face European teams will only sharpen them as they brace for future Asian tournaments.
“We’re setting all the girls all camp that we wanna play against the best teams, constantly build and be better,” Torcaso said.
“So, we will work on our defensive attributes and constantly fine-tune them because we wanna make sure that we got that right as we go into next year.”
“We want to make sure that’s a solid foundation we keep building on that but will be a little more expressive again in the front third and give our girls opportunities to have some goal-scoring chances,” he added.
