Australia 1-0 Philippines
By Alyce Collett 1/3/2026
Above: The Matildas celebrate after Sam Kerr scored to help Australia to a win over the Philippines tonight. Photo: Cat Bryant for Impetus.
Australia has started its 2026 Asian Cup with the perfect result, downing the Philippines 1-0 thanks to a first half goal from Sam Kerr.
However despite picking up all three points Australia’s performance has certainly brought plenty of questions to the surface, with an impressive defensive performance from the Philippines making it really hard for Australia to get shots away despite dominating possession.
The Philippines’ defence – lead by captain Hali Long – successfully deployed a low block, which carefully crowded the space in the Matildas’ attacking box to make it hard for the tournament hosts to shoot with any ease.
Eventually the defence did crack though in the 14th minute, and in a perfectly poetic moment it was the hometown hero in Kerr who scored the opening goal.
After Clare Wheeler beautifully crossed the ball in from the wing, she found Caitlin Foord on the back post who headed it to Kerr who then headed it straight into the back of the net.
Australia continued the attacking pressure after Kerr’s goal, and almost had a second goal at the half hour mark but VAR judged that Hayley Raso had been offside when she scored her goal.
The next best chance for the Matildas’ came with just over five minutes in regulation time of the first half left when Raso won a free kick just outside the 18 yard box, directly in front of goal. However, Steph Catley’s subsequent free kick shot on goal was perfectly saved by a flying Olivia McDaniel in goals, ensuring the Matildas were again denied a second goal for the evening.
Despite as hard as the Matildas were trying to double their advantage before half time, they were ultimately unsuccessful and Kerr’s goal was all that split the teams at the break.
The Matildas had 88% of possession in the first half, but only managed to record five shots (with only two of them on target). This was the result of the way the Philippines had been defending, deploying a compacted defence that really crowded the area directly in front of goal.
Perhaps buoyed by the success of their tactics in the first half, the Philippines continued to defend really strongly in the second half, continuing to make it really hard for the Matildas to get any shots on goal away. As hard as players like Raso and Wheeler were working in generating proper attacking opportunities, their efforts proved to be in vain as the likes of Kerr and Foord were simply outnumbered in the box.
Despite things not quite working in attack, when Matildas’ coach Joe Montemurro did change things up halfway through the second half it was the midfield he changed, seeming to change the formation to a 5-2-3 from the 4-3-3 he had started the match with.
The Matildas continued to struggle to get accurate shots on goal – with a number of long and inaccurate shots coming instead – and as such were unable to further add to their lead they established early in the first half.
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Teams: AUSTRALIA (4-3-3): Lincoln, Heatley, Hunt, Wheeler, Catley, Foord, Van Egmond, Raso, Gorry, Kerr, Carpenter. Substitutes: Arnold, Aquino, Nevin, Rankin, Torpey, Fowler, Chidiac, Kennedy, Johnson, Sayer, Heyman, Rule, McNamara, Siemsen.
Scorers: Kerr 14’
PHILIPPINES (4-3-3): O.McDaniel, Cowart, Long, Sawicki, Eggesvik, Frilles, C.McDaniel, Beard, Wunsch, Guillou, Pino. Substitutes: Bradley, Cesar, Oca, Guy, Castaneda, Hawkinson, Curran, Pasion, Markey, Meollo, Carpio, DeFazio, Ramirez, Villapando, McSwigan.
Referee: Dong Fangyu (China)
Attendance: 44,379.
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