New Zealand players: 'The loss to the Philippines was too painful'

"This loss is so painful. It hurts us, especially after we beat Norway," Katie Bowen told Viaplay after the match on Sky. "We were aiming to get three points but we didn't do it."

Similar to Bowen, coach Jitka Klimkova shared that she felt heartbroken. However, the 48-year-old leader insisted that everything was not over, calling on the New Zealand players to quickly focus again for the Swiss match.

This match, New Zealand is highly appreciated, with the support of more than 30,000 home fans. They also dominated in possession time (69%) and launched 16 shots - four times that of the Philippines. In it, there are many delicious opportunities. However, they never once converted into a table. The hosts were also unlucky when they were denied a goal in the 68th minute by Jacqui Hand for offside.

Semi-automatic offside technology showed that Hannah Wilkinson's right shoulder was just a few centimeters from the Philippines' final defender, before the home striker received the ball and crossed for Hand to head. After the reporters showed the situation, a frustrated Hand said: "It's VAR. They say it's offside, so it's offside. It's part of football but I feel bad."

Right-back CJ Bott describes himself as having a hard time swallowing the situation but still accepting defeat. "I hate the offside rule," Bott told Stuff. "It won't be a game-changing moment if we make good use of the other opportunities."

Captain Ali Riley said that when VAR came in, she thought everything would be over, and felt helpless when New Zealand pressed hard but could not score. In the opposite direction, underdogs, but the Philippines scored from the only shot on target, from Sarina Bolden's header.

In the other match, Switzerland drew 0-0 Norway, leading to a very unpredictable group situation. Switzerland leads with four points, followed by Norway with one point. Second place is New Zealand with three points, equal to the Philippines but more than the goal difference (0 vs -1).

The last two matches took place at the same time on July 30 with New Zealand vs Switzerland, Philippines vs Norway.