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Steffen Schmidt - July 19, 2023
Philippines vs Switzerland
FIFA Women’s World Cup
Date: 21 July 2023, Friday
Kick-off at 06:00 UK / 07:00 CET
Venue: Dunedin Stadium (Dunedin).
The Philippines will make their World Cup debut on Friday when they take on Switzerland in their Group A opener in Dunedin.
The Southeastern Asia outfit took advantage of the World Cup expansion to secure their maiden qualification for the tournament.
Will they be in Australia and New Zealand just to make numbers remains to be seen but it is worth noting that the Philippines made it to the AFC Asian Cup semifinal in the previous edition of the tournament.
For the sake of comparison, Australia (one of the dark horses of the entire tournament), were eliminated in the quarterfinal of the same competition.
Either way, Switzerland will be enormous favorites in this match just due to the gulf in quality between the two outfits.
The Swiss team are making their second World Cup appearance as they are looking to beat the 2015 record when they were eliminated by hosts Canada in the last 16 round.
Switzerland have several high-profile players in their ranks, namely Arsenal’s Lia Walti and Barcelona’s Ana Maria Crnogorcevic, both of whom have had amazing campaigns for their respective clubs last season.
The Swiss team had limited success in recent friendlies, going seven games on the spin without a win. The negative streak includes draws to China, Zambia, and Morocco.
The Philippines, on the other side, beat Malaysia and Vietnam in their latest Southeaster Asia Games ties, showing impressive defensive form in the process.
The mere look at the odds best reveals the difference in quality between the two outfits. Nonetheless, we must not forget that the Philippines reached the AFC Asian Cup semifinal while Switzerland are on a streak of seven straight winless outings.
The main pick is the Philippines to win in +1.5 Asian Handicap at the attractive 2.50 odds while we also like the Under 2.5 goals FT bet at the 2.40 odds.
