Wellington, July 25 (Representative) Sarina Bolden has etched her name into history after the Philippines secured a 1-0 win over co-hosts New Zealand here on Tuesday. The confident Kiwis started the match looking for more history after their first-ever FIFA Women’s World Cup win against Norway in the tournament opener. Instead it was the Filipinas who stunnedthe sold-out Wellington Regional Stadium when Bolden nodded home their maiden goal in the competition in the 24th minute.It was the first goal by any team making its debut at the 2023 edition of the tournament, the FIFA reported.The Football Ferns pushed hard for an equaliser, and an excellent cross from Hannah Wilkinson found Jacqui Hand in the 69th minute. She headed the ball into the net, but the goal was eventually ruled out after Wilkinson was deemed offside.Grace Jale’s effort in the dying moments of the game was superbly saved by Olivia McDaniel to deny the hosts an equaliser, and the Philippines held on for a famous victory.New Zealand defender Katie Bowen said, “It’s still pretty raw at the moment.
It’s massively disappointing. I felt we had chances and most of the possession, but we weren’t clinical enoughand they wanted it more than us.”“I have to say, it’s so heartbreaking for everyone in this team. We played to win today and it didn’t go our way. I saw all our faces – we wanted it. We were fighting to the end, but it wasn’t enough. We were missing a little piece in our execution and that was decisive today,” she added. Football Ferns head coach Jitka Klimkova said, “We were dominating the game again. There were too many unforced turnovers, we didn’t see those turnovers in our game against Norway. This time we had more than we wanted. We will review, we will look at the game, we will look for a way we can go against Switzerland. We will keep fighting.”