By Jenny Cadungog

Published: March 31, 2011

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – It has already been confirmed that Philippine Azkals will take on Sri Lanka for the first round of 2014 World Cup Qualifiers. The first leg of the match will be on June 29 in Sri Lanka while the second leg will be played in the Philippines. At the end of two legs, the aggregate score will be the basis for the winner.

There is no fixed venue where the game will be played in Sri Lanka but Philippine Football Federation President, Mariano Araneta, has chosen Rizal Memorial Stadium as the venue for the second leg.

Based on the FIFA world ranking, the Philippine Azkals have a huge over Sri Lanka considering they are on No. 151 while the Sri Lankan team is ranked at No. 173. Azkals is also ranked No. 27 in Asian ranking and the other is No. 36.

But everybody knows ranking does not necessarily reflects the skills of the team that is why the Filipino booters will be spending much of their time training for the said event.

Looking forward, if they win against Sri Lanka the next team they will be playing against is Kuwait which far way too strong when ranking is the basis; it is on No. 103 if FIFA’s world ranking and No. 12 in Asia.

Meanwhile, the fans of Azkals are hoping they could move on to the higher rounds in World Cup where the games are expected to be very interesting considering all the best football teams in the world will be struggling so hard to bring home the World Cup trophy.

While the team is also getting ready for the AFC Challenge Cup 2012 Qualifier, they are confident they will do well in their matches.