Malditas march on to round 2 of the Olympic qualifiers after smothering Mongolia

The Philippines progressed to the second round of Women's Olympic qualifiers with a match to spare following their 5-1 rout of Mongolia Sunday afternoon (evening Manila time) in Hisor, Tajikistan.

Following the withdrawal of UAE and Macau in Group B. the qualifying format was tweaked instantly with the top two sides in each group automatically qualified, with the two best third place finishers completing the cast for round two.

Despite the late change in format, Let Dimzon's Malditas showed no signs of slowing down in Group A play, with debutant Shelah Cadag notching her second hat-trick in three matches to set up Tuesday's tiff with Michelle Pao and Chinese Taipei for the group's top honors.

Cadag put the Filipinas ahead eight minutes into the match, and then added another one fifteen minutes later before being pegged back by an Undrakh Ulziibayar penalty deep into added time for a 2-1 halftime lead.

However, Camille Rodriguez resumed normal services at the hour mark, with Kyla Inquig netting her first full international strike in the 81st minute.

Cadag completed the hat-trick five minutes before full time to complete the rout.

Philippines: Palacios (GK), Long, Rodriguez, Dolino, Cadag, Castañeda, Tomanon, Bernal, Lemoran, Inquig, Impelido (C)
subs used: Lopez, Navaja, Lustan

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