Team Philippines put up a nothing-to-lose stand against three-time world champion Brazil to score a stunning 2-1 victory Thursday night at the start of the main round of the International Handball Federation men’s and women’s championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

The Filipinas, dubbed as Amigas, are competing in the beach competitions where they ran into the bigger, heftier Brazilians who thought they were in for an easy picking.

But after the Brazilians took the first period (26-14), the Amigas launched a furious fightback, hacking out a 23-22 second-period victory to force a shootout.

The Filipinas then completed the shocker by beating the Brazilians, 7-6, in the extra period.

“Our Philippine team showed so much pride today,” Philippine Handball Federation (PHF) president Dr. Ernesto Jay Adalem, who was there in the sidelines, said.

“The crowd here and even the officials were glued to the court because they were delightfully surprised with how tough we played against the three-time world champions. This is how we gain respect in the international scene.”

The Philippines dropped a 2-0 decision to Greece (late Thursday, Manila time). It will next face Norway in Group 2 of the main round, hoping to better its 12th-place finish two years ago in China.

“There are no easy teams here,” said head coach Jana Franquelli, referring to what the team went through the previous days in the preliminary round.

It was the first-ever victory for the Philippines in the main round of the Worlds, marking the country’s foothold in the popular Olympic sport.

The Philippines made it through after scrambling with 2-1 card where it took losses from heavyweights Sweden and Argentina.

From the 16-country preliminaries, the Philippines managed to advance to the 12-nation main round, via a 1-2 record beating Benin.