The Philippines will be facing fellow FIFA Women's World Cup participant Japan.
All the Philippine women's national football team needed was a goal against Myanmar on Thursday night to advance. The team got that goal and more.
Star striker Sarina Bolden delivered it in the 19th minute with a converted penalty. It was her third goal in three matches at the Asian Games.
And then in the second half, midfielder Sara Eggesvik proved to be the star of the show with a brace, literally happening a minute apart.
She's keeping cool about it though.
"I'm glad to help the team going to the knockout stage. It could have been any one of us who scored," Eggesvik said in an interview posted in the social media pages of the Philippine women's national football team.
"I'm glad to get on the score sheet. It's always a team effort. I'm glad the team did really well today. I got good balls so I could just tap it in," she added.
"Good game for us today!"
For captain Hali Long, it was a brief sigh of relief. After all, Myanmar was quite the thorn on their side as recently as May of this year.
In the 2021 Southeast Asian Games, the Philippines returned to the football podium by beating Myanmar for the bronze medal. The Burmese got their revenge in the 2023 edition, blanking the Filipinas in the group stage en route to a silver.
In their third head-to-head, the Filipinas got the goals and the quarterfinals berth in the Asian Games.
"It's nice to get the win back from Myanmar. That was the goal. If that meant going through, that meant going through," Long said in a separate interview.
The world no. 44 Filipinas, though, will have an even bigger challenge on Saturday as their quarterfinals opponent is world no. 8 Nadeshiko Japan, who also reached the final eight of the recent FIFA Women's World Cup.
(MDB)