The Philippine held its ground and made an overwhelming defense against the hometown favorite North Korean national football team as they managed to get a scoreless draw in the hotly contested FIFA World Cup Qualifying tournament hosted by North Korea.
The Azkals hold the hosts to a scoreless draw in the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers on Thursday afternoon at the Kim Il-Sung Stadium in North Korea.
The Filipinos were able to survive a flurry of attacks from North Korean offensive forwards as the host got so many chances in the dying minutes to score the winning goal but their effort was not enough to defeat the visiting Azkals.
Veteran Azkals goalkeeper Neil Etheridge stood his ground against the North Korans, as he weathered the attacked which was supported by a very strong 50,000 fans loudly cheering for the home team.
The results of the Azkals vs. North Korea match was a good one for the Philippines as the country earned a point in this draw after getting humiliated in their last game against Uzbekistan.
The draw was also the first time that the North Koreans suffered this kind of fate, after they went unblemish during the earlier round of the World Cup Qualifiers.
North Korea still sits on top of Group H with 10 points (2W-0L-1D) in four matches. Uzbekistan sits at third with six points (2W-1L-0D), Bahrain (1W-2L-0D, 3pts) and Yemen (0W-4L-0D, 0 pts) round out the group.
