Japan crush S.Korea to set up Asian Cup final showdown with Australia

A clinical Japan swept past South Korea 4-1 on Wednesday to set up a Women’s Asian Cup final against hosts Australia, with the two-time champions putting on a masterclass.

West Ham’s Riko Ueki and Tottenham’s Maika Hamano scored in the first half in Sydney with veteran Saki Kumagai and Remina Chiba adding to the tally after the break.

They had three more goals disallowed.

It was a dominant display by Nils Nielsen’s world-number-eight team and a warning shot to the Matildas.

Japan meet Australia in the final at the same stadium on Saturday after Sam Kerr scored the winner in the hosts’ 2-1 semi-final win over defending champions China on Tuesday.

While Australia have had to fight hard to reach the final, it has been a far easier ride for Japan.

They have bagged 28 goals in their five games so far and conceded just one.

“Very proud of them today,” said Nielsen, a former Denmark and Switzerland coach.

“It’s not easy to just switch and play a team that has much more to give and make it look easy. And they actually did it, they made this game look fairly comfortable and easy for us.

“But it wasn’t because South Korea is a great opponent.

“Please don’t tell Australia, but we have played better than we did today,” he added.

“We needed to find more. We needed to find a gear more. We did OK.”

It was always going to be a big task for South Korea against a side they have not beaten in over a decade and who are ranked 13 places higher.

Japan, who made seven changes from their quarter-final line-up, were unrelenting and should have been 1-0 up after seven minutes.

But Manchester City midfielder Yui Hasegawa fluffed a sitter, slicing her shot wide in front of an open goal.

With the match played almost exclusively in the South Korean half, a breakthrough was inevitable and it came from Ueki in the 15th minute.

Liverpool’s Fuka Nagano won the ball in the box and offloaded it to her teammate who calmly side footed home -- her sixth goal of the tournament.

Japan kept the pressure on and doubled their lead 10 minutes later when Hamano darted into the box from the right and slammed in from an acute angle at the near post.

She was overcome with emotion and tears streamed down her face.

Japan had two more goals disallowed, for offside and handball, before the break as South Korea clung on.

It was more of the same when they returned, with the Koreans barely getting a look-in.

A Ueki effort clattered off the crossbar before the third goal finally arrived from Kumagai with a forceful header on 75 minutes.

Against the run of play, Kang Chae-rim pulled one back for South Korea before Chiba’s powerful drive minutes later sealed a dominant win, with a third goal disallowed for offside close to the finish.

Resilient Australia ‘need to be better’ in final: Australia coach Joe Montemurro praised his team’s resilience after they ground into the final, but said they know ‘deep down in their hearts’ it was not an ideal performance.

Strikes from star forwards Sam Kerr and Caitlin Foord were enough to withstand a physical challenge from defending champions China 2-1 in Perth on Tuesday.

It propelled them into the continental decider on Saturday in Sydney against Japan as they edge closer to their first Asian Cup crown since 2010.

Montemurro, a former Arsenal, Juventus and Lyon coach, is known as a hard taskmaster and was not entirely happy.

“Our objective of getting to the final is complete, but we know deep down in our hearts that we need to be better, more continuous in terms of the way that we play,” he said.

“But we found something again and we got through.

“It’s a bit of momentum, it’s a bit of belief. Even though we didn’t find the continuity that we wanted with the ball, the patches that we did things right were good.”

Once again, Australia had their most prolific goalscorer Kerr to thank.

Agence France-Presse