BACOLOD CITY – Neil Etheridge hailed the resolve showed by the Philippine Azkals in holding powerhouse China to a scoreless draw in Tuesday’s FIFA World Cup/AFC Asian Cup Qualifiers match here.
The veteran goalkeeper played the starring role in the Philippines’ best result against China in a century, making key saves in the final minutes while providing stability at the back.
China came into the match having scored 12 goals while conceding none and had beaten the Azkals in two friendlies and in this year’s Asian Cup by a combined scoreline of 13-1 since 2017.
“They’ve done very well when they played us previously and even today, they were a very strong team. But we were up for the challenge,” said Etheridge after the match held at the Panaad Stadium.
“Obviously, to come away with a point and the clean sheet is a good result. It’s not a great result but we were happy with the point and we deserved to get a point,” added Etheridge.
Etheridge was the obvious star of the rugged affair with his stability at the back while making key saves when it mattered.
His best save came during stoppage time when Etheridge made a one-handed deflection that denied Chinese captain Junmin Hao the winning goal.
While the Cardiff City shot-stopper acknowledged that his experience playing in last season’s English Premier League have been very beneficial, Etheridge opted to describe the result as a collective effort while stressing that there’s plenty of work to be done in the second round of the qualifiers
“The boys who came off the bench, the starting 11 did really, really well. But we got a lot more to give and our goal is to get out of this group.”
Team manager Dan Palami praised the Azkals led by coaches Scott Cooper and Goran Milojevic with the focus shown since arriving in this Western Visayas city last week.
“We knew somehow that if we play with focus and that we play together as a team, we could achieve this kind of result, even upset China,” said Palami. (Jonas Terrado)
