China confirmed their place in the quarter-finals of the AFC Women’s Asian Cup with a comfortable 3–0 victory over the Uzbekistan women’s national football team in Group B on Friday, a result that also keeps the qualification hopes of the Bangladesh women’s national football team alive.
Playing at Western Sydney Stadium, the defending champions started aggressively and dominated possession from the opening whistle. China created several promising attacks but initially struggled to break through Uzbekistan’s defence.
The breakthrough finally arrived in the 30th minute when Shao Ziqin calmly converted from the penalty spot to give China the lead.
Uzbekistan attempted to respond after conceding but found it difficult to penetrate China’s organised defence and confident goalkeeping.
China extended their advantage shortly after the interval. Li Qingtong doubled the lead in the 51st minute before scoring again in the 77th minute to complete a comfortable victory for the reigning champions.
With two wins from two matches, China have now secured qualification for the quarter-finals. They had earlier defeated Bangladesh 2–0 in their opening group match.
Uzbekistan, meanwhile, suffered their second defeat of the tournament after previously losing 3–0 to the North Korea women’s national football team.
Bangladesh have also endured defeats in both of their matches so far — losing 2–0 to China and 5–0 to North Korea.
Both China and North Korea now have six points from two matches and have already guaranteed the two automatic quarter-final spots from Group B. Despite having no points, Uzbekistan remain third in the group on goal difference ahead of Bangladesh.
Bangladesh will face Uzbekistan in their final group match on Monday in Perth.
Victory in that match could still give Bangladesh a chance to progress to the knockout stage as one of the two best third-placed teams across the three groups.
From Group A, hosts Australia women’s national football team and the South Korea women’s national football team have already advanced to the next round. Meanwhile, the Philippines women’s national football team and the Iran women’s national football team are still searching for their first win.
Group C has seen each team play one match so far, and notably, no match in the tournament has ended in a draw yet.
With the top two teams from each group and the two best third-placed sides progressing to the quarter-finals, Bangladesh’s fate will hinge on their final group-stage clash with Uzbekistan.
