Japan thrash South Korea 4-1 to set up Women's Asian Cup final with Australia
Japan's Maika Hamano (C) celebrates scoring a goal during their Women’s Asian Cup semi-final against South Korea (DAVID GRAY) 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.