The football team of China defeated reigning champion Japan after penalties to reach the finals of the Women’s Asian Cup. Thus, the Chinese players will face South Korea in a match for the gold medals.
With the match ending at 2-2 after extra time, it took the penalty shoot-out for eight-time champions China to overcome current champions Japan.
Despite the final result, the match started perfectly for Japan, who opened the score by Riko Ueki in the 26th minute after the assistance of Hinata Miyazawa. The team kept the dominance on the field during the whole first half. However, the second half started with a goal of Chengshu Wu in the 46th minute which equalized the score. Thus the full-time ended 1-1.
In the extra time, Riko Ueki scored again to give an important lead for her team. The team of Japan was feeling the success, just a minute left on the extra time clock before captain Wang Shanshan equalized.
The extra time ended with a draw of 2-2, which lead to a penalty shoot-out. China’s goalkeeper Yu Zhu saved the first penalty shot of Saki Kumagai, but Xin Zhang also missed. Both teams were accurate in the next penalty shoot-outs with Yui Hasegawa, Risa Shimizu, and Fuka Nagano, scoring to Japan, while Rui Zhang, Lina Yang, and Chen Gao scored for China. The fifth penalty for Japan was taken by Moeka Minami, but she missed as her shot was saved by China’s goalkeeper Yu Zhu. The captain Wang Shanshan showed strong nerves and despite the Japanese goalkeeper being close of catching her shot, the ball hit the net, giving the win to China.
China will face South Korea in the final on February 6th.
Japan is the winner of the Asian Cup Women in 2014 and 2018, but this time they will play in the match from the bronze medals only with the Philippines.
