Philippine national men’s football team players Bjorn Kristensen and Sandro Reyes are excited to bring in the lessons they learned in their ASEAN Mitsubishi Electric Cup stint as they brace for the third round of the Asian Football Confederation Asian Cup qualifiers on 25 March.

Kristensen, the Nationals’ top goalscorer of the Mitsubishi Electric Cup with three goals, said after making it to the semifinal and pushing defending champion Thailand to the limit, they can continue pushing further to greater heights.

The Philippines lost to Thailand on aggregate, 3-4, in the semifinals of the Mitsubishi Electric Cup.

“We start again in March for the Asian Cup qualifiers. I think Philippine Football is growing. We have to learn from this kind of game,” Kristensen said.

“None of us have been in this kind of situation before. It’s a good experience for us young people.”

The Philippines is in Group A with Tajikistan, Maldives and Timor Leste.

Only the top team of each group will earn a ticket to the biggest football competition in Asia after a double round-robin format in the qualifiers.

The last time the Philippines made it to the Asian Cup was back in 2019 when Phil Younghusband, Stephan Shrock and Neil Etheridge were in the squad with the late Sven-Goran Eriksson as head coach.

Sandro Reyes believes that this chapter of their team will be something they will look back on as they aim to join the Asian Cup and maybe, get out of the group stages.

The 21-year-old midfielder believes the Nationals will get more support after their recent run in the Mitsubishi Electric Cup.

“We can dream big now. It’s only going to go up from here,” Reyes said.

“It looks like it’s going to get the support that we deserve after performing in this tournament, and I think Indonesia has done the blueprint and that’s the way to go. So we will dream.”