On July 7, the semifinals of the 17th Asian Youth Women's Handball Championship featured an exciting showdown. China's national youth women's handball team and Japan's team met each other on a narrow road. With the game tied at 27, Shi Zihan of the national youth team stepped forward and scored a key goal to make the score 28-27, sealing the victory. The game ended with a victory for the national youth team.
In the early part of the game, the two teams went back and forth and the score difference was once tight. However, the National Youth Team made a lot of mistakes, allowing Japan to take advantage of the situation and widen the gap. At the end of the first half, Japan led by five points, 16-11.
At halftime, National Youth Women's Handicap Head Coach Suzanne decisively adjusted her tactics in response to Japan's rapid counterattacks, emphasizing the need for quick withdrawals during defensive transitions in the second half.
In the second half, the national youth women's handball team showed a strong will to fight. Left winger No. 7 Zhang Siyu and right winger No. 10 Shi Zihan repeatedly broke the opponent's defense, No. 2 Jiang Zhisan threatened the opponent's goal with her height advantage, and No. 11 Liu Xuedan's shot was also quite threatening. Against the backdrop of the national youth team's efforts to chase points, goalkeeper No. 1 Li Luyao played heroically, repeatedly blocking the Japanese team's shots, trailing the score to 25-25.
With five minutes left in the game, the National Youth Women's Handicap team rallied to take a 27-25 lead. Despite Japan's last-minute equalizer, Shi Zihan's game-winner left Japan with no choice but to stop in the semifinals and capped off a come-from-behind battle for the national youth team.
Meanwhile, South Korea advanced to the finals with a 41-20 thrashing of Chinese Taipei. The women's national youth team of this year's tournament will fight for the title against South Korea at 4pm.
