MANILA – Iraq men’s football team handed host Philippine Azkals a humiliating 5-0 defeat in the joint FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup 2027 qualifiers on Tuesday night at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.
Unlike in their initial match last week where host Iraq managed to escape with a 1-0 victory over the Azkals, the Iraqis went full force on offense to put the Philippine team’s World Cup hopes in danger.
The Azkals had a disappointing start as they quickly conceded a goal to the visiting squad as early as the 14th minute due to a penalty kick from Iraqi striker Aymen Hussein.
The Iraqis continued to pound on the Azkals defense as they doubled the lead in the 30th minute courtesy of a conversion from Amir Al Ammari before Hussein completed his brace just before the halftime break.
Zidane Iqbal widened the lead further for Iraq in the second half by scoring with a conversion in the 62nd minute before Zaid Tahseen completed the lopsided win with a 77th-minute header.
With the victory, the Iraqis have assured their place in the next round of the World Cup qualifiers with 12 points behind four straight wins, while the Azkals remained win-less in four outings.
“We got three points which is more important today because we already qualified for the Asian Cup 2027 and we already qualified to the third round of the (World Cup) qualifiers,” said Hussein.
“In the first match (in Basrah), the Philippines played zone defense. We couldn’t get past it,” he explained. “Today, we played more direct we scored five goals and we got lots of opportunities.”
Azkals head coach Tom Saintfiet, meanwhile, was disappointed with the performance of his squad as they failed to show a fight against the Iraqis. He also apologized to the fans for their forgetful game.
“I’m very disappointed,” said Saintfiet. “I would like to say my apologies to the 10,000 fans in the stadium and also the people who were watching at home. The fans were behind us for the whole 90 minutes, and I am sorry for the very disappointing result.”/PN
