On the night of October 9, a fierce battle was staged in Wuhan, the third round of the women's soccer team's AFC Champions League Group A tournament came to an end. Facing Korea Hyundai Iron Red Angels, the home team Wuhan Chegu Jiangda Women's Football Team (hereinafter referred to as Wuhan Women's Football Team) lost 0-2, failing to lock up the group's qualifying place in advance. However, looking at the table, they still have a good chance of reaching the semi-finals!
The Wuhan women's soccer team had a slight slump in the AFC Champions League despite a 1-2 loss to Zhang Linyan in the first round of the tournament for the Abu Dhabi Country Women's Soccer Team in the United Arab Emirates. But after a 7-0 thrashing of Malaysia Sabah in the second round, they are only third in the group after two rounds due to Abu Dhabi's 2-2 draw with Hyundai Steelers in the second round.
Before the match, Wuhan Women's Football Head Coach Chang Weiwei emphasized that in the face of high-intensity AFC Champions League matches, the team has taken a short break to adjust their body and mind to the best state. Facing the strong South Korean Hyundai Iron Women's Football Team, he hoped that the team would continue the good performance of the previous round and strive for a win. In another match in the third round of the same group, Abu Dhabi and Sabah drew 2-2, so the only way for Wuhan women's soccer team to advance to the line is to win against Hyundai Steel.
Compared with the previous match, Wuhan Women's Football Team's starting lineup was only slightly adjusted, with Xie Ting replacing the injured Li Yanfei. At the beginning of the match, the visiting Hyundai Iron Women's Soccer Team was more active, occupying most of the possession on the field, forming a continuous threat to Wuhan Women's Soccer Team. Wuhan Women's Football Team only had sporadic counterattacks. In the 37th minute, Mbobo nearly broke through the opponent's goal, which was the closest they came to scoring. However, Wuhan Women's soccer team conceded the first goal, which came from their own mistakes. In the 43rd minute, Hyundai Iron Women's soccer team increased the score with a goal from Yoko Tanaka.
Wuhan Women's soccer team was in need of a goal, but the offense didn't improve. Chang Weiwei replaced Song Fei, Dai Chen Ying, Huang Baoying and Li Tingting, but still could not break the deadlock. In the 79th minute, Hyundai Iron Women's Soccer scored a goal through counter-attack with foreigner Nguessa, making the score 2-0.
After three rounds of competition, Hyundai Steel and Abu Dhabi in Group A locked up their places in advance, while Wuhan women's soccer team accumulated three points with one win and two losses, temporarily ranking third in the group.
Nevertheless, Wuhan Women's Football Team's AFC Championship journey did not end there. According to the system of this season's Women's AFC Championship, the top two of the three groups and the best third place of the two groups will advance to the knockout rounds of the eight-team tournament. Currently, Wuhan women's soccer team is ranked third in Group A, with a goal difference of four; Group B has only two rounds, the third and fourth places are Bampton women's soccer team and Asian Scholars Academy women's soccer team with one point; Group C also has only two rounds, the third and fourth places are the Blue Whale women's soccer team with a goal difference of -4, and the Orissa State with -19. This means that in the final round of matches on the 12th, Wuhan Women's Soccer will have a chance to advance as long as the last two in Group B fail to get a draw.
Although there is still the possibility of advancing to the quarter-finals, but this AFC Champions League group stage trip to Wuhan women's soccer five champions, is undoubtedly a shame. Before the match, Chang Wei Wei had the grandiose words: "We are the highest ranked team in Asia. I believe that as long as we do well, we can show our strengths and weaknesses in three matches, regardless of our opponents." However, the Wuhan women's soccer team suffered a setback in the first round of the tournament, and was reversed 2-1 in the last three minutes by their opponents after Abu Dhabi pressed them, laying the groundwork for their failure to get out of the tournament early.
After the match, Chang Weiwei said, "Three matches in 10 days, the players play the Asian Championship after the league, the physical quality is greatly challenged. The road ahead is up to you. If you can advance to the semifinals, please believe that the team will change in the knockout rounds. Although we lost this game, we will not be discouraged and Wuhan women's soccer will continue to move forward." According to the women's AFC Champions League schedule, the knockout rounds will be played in late March and late May next year. If the Wuhan women's soccer team breaks into the semifinals, it will still have nearly six months to adjust all aspects of the team.
