Photo: FIFA

By LDC

The second match of the 2025 FIFA Futsal Women's World Cup quarterfinal round offers a compelling clash between European powerhouse Spain and spirited African side Morocco.

Both teams enter the contest with contrasting group stage records and world rankings. Second-ranked Spain is coming off a sweep of Group B, while 31st-ranked Morocco advanced as the runner-up of Group A with two wins.

Their match will take place on Monday at the Philsports Arena in Pasig with a kickoff time of 8:30 p.m. The winner of the game will face either Brazil or Japan on Friday.

Spain, considered among the tournament favorites, dominated its matchups against Thailand, Colombia and Canada with an average winning margin of 4.67 goals.

Claudia Pons — Spain’s head coach since 2018 — was pleased with her team’s performance leading up to the last eight, noting their balance between scoring and defense. While respecting Morocco, she remains assured in her players’ ability to execute their game plan.

“It couldn't be better,” said Pons. “I think it was one of the objectives, a good game, and especially today, to be qualified and know that this is a World Cup and that we continue working to generate confidence.”

“I think that we arrived with confidence, we have scored many goals, we have conceded few. In the end, I think it's one of the things we've always been looking for. Morocco is going to be a complicated rival, but I believe we can have a good game with them.”

In the case of Morocco, it will be a matter of upsetting one of the giants of the futsal and football world.

The African nation's journey to the quarterfinals saw it recover from a 6-0 opening-day loss to Argentina by clinching one-goal wins over the host nation Philippines and Poland.

Fielding players who mainly come from a football background, Morocco coach Adil Sayeh acknowledged the difficulty of competing against futsal veterans. However, credited his team’s patriotic spirit and preparation over the last year. He also felt that the quarterfinal berth was a significant achievement that deserved to be celebrated.

“Nothing is easy,” said Sayeh. “Nothing is easy for you to play against the experienced female players in the futsal. We trained for this for about a year and three months. Thank God, this affected us with great efforts. We should celebrate it frankly today because this is an achievement. An achievement that we should not hate.”

Sayeh also revealed the team's ultimate ambition: to make a statement by defeating one of the top teams, and with Spain on the horizon, this is Morocco’s best chance yet to accomplish this.

“Our priority is beating one of the big teams to win,” he said.