Libya's national women's football team is not only struggling on the pitch but also battling a society that frowns on women playing sports in public at all. Female athletes and women's teams have many critics in the patriarchal country.

"Your place is at home." You're playing because "you have no man to educate you" - such comments are hurled at players every time they train, said center forward, Saida Saad.

"For the love of the sport, we resist," said Saad, from the eastern city of Benghazi. "We are trying to change attitudes in society."

She joined her teammates for a training session in the capital Tripoli's Sports City ahead of a two-leg African Cup qualifying match against Ethiopia earlier this month. Coach Hassan Ferjani had modest ambitions for his team - getting them fit enough to last 90 minutes on the pitch.

"Poor things, it'll be the first time they play on a big field," he said. Just a few days ahead of the match, only 10 players made it to the training session. Others, including some based in the U.S., joined the team in Cairo - venue for the "home" match, as world football's governing body, FIFA, does not allow internationals in strife-torn Libya - for the showdown with Ethiopia. Libya lost that match 8-0 and was thrashed 7-0 in the second leg in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, unable to notch up a single goal. With no women's football league in Libya, players for the national team are selected at tournaments in schools across the country. And while training these young women to an international standard is a daunting challenge, in many cases the hardest part is convincing their families to let them play.

"There are many girls with talent but were unjustly barred from playing football" because of social pressures, said Rasha Nouri, a veteran of Libya's national team, dubbed the Knights of the Mediterranean. Having earned her coaching license, she said she now hopes to train women's youth teams and eventually start a national league. She also wants to "change mentalities via social networks and the media," she said. Souad al-Shibani, head of women's football at the Libyan Football Federation, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the body plans to launch a program to develop the sport, starting with a school football league for young women.

Shibani said she was "optimistic" about the future of football in Libya because the younger generation was "more open and more enthusiastic."