Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — The Philippine Azkals got their Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup qualifying campaign off to a good start after blasting Nepal, 4-1, on Tuesday evening at the Rizal Memorial Stadium.
It didn’t take long for the game to swing the way of the hosts.
At the 12th minute mark, a Nepali defender got his hand on a goal bound ball and was shown a red card.
Unfortunately for the hosts, the keeper proved to be up to the task and parried Phil Younghusband’s game effort to keep the game scoreless.
Younghusband redeemed himself soon after, and duly converted another penalty chance in the 21st minute.
The Azkals captain was not done there, as he slotted home Mike Ott’s pass to double the home side’s lead just two minutes later.
Iain Ramsay also got in on the act, driving home a volley at the 28th minute to give the Azkals a commanding 3-0 lead.
But the Philippines could not preserve a clean sheet after Bishal Rai pulled one back for Nepal right before the halftime whistle, 3-1.
The second half proved to be a more tame affair, but that did not stop Javi Patiño from adding his name to the scoresheet to make it 4-1 for the Philippines at the 73rd minute.
After the game, the goal-scoring Younghusband was happy with the team’s performance and said they could have scored more.
“The most important thing is that we got the win, but we could have had more goals,” Younghusband said.
Nepal would try to trim the deficit, but were unable to crack the Philippine defense for a second time.
The Azkals return to action in the AFC Asian Cup against Tajikistan on June 13.
