It took Japan a while to unpick a tight Philippines defence but when they did, the floodgates opened as the East Asian powerhouse stormed into a tenth consecutive edition of the FIFA Women’s World Cup™.
For the final time, the ongoing AFC Women’s Asian Cup serves as the qualification tournament for the global showpiece, with the four quarter-final winners, Australia, China PR, Korea Republic and now Japan securing automatic passage to the Women’s World Cup.
Two additional berths will be settled via a pair of play-in matches between the nations that lost those last-eight match-ups, with the losing nations in those fixtures then advancing to the Play-Off Tournament.
That will see the Philippines face Uzbekistan and Korea DPR clash with Chinese Taipei, with both matches taking place on 19 March on the Gold Coast.
Japan goals: Mina Tanaka (45) Toko Koga (45+3, 76) Remina Chiba (65) Manaka Matsukubo (67), Momoko Tanikawa (86), Riko Ueki (90)
Having waltzed through the group stage with a perfect record, 17 goals scored and none conceded it was going to take an almighty effort from the Philippines to slow the Nadeshiko march.
For 45 minutes though they managed to repeatedly repel wave after wave of Japan attack, with the 2011 world champions raining down 20 shots before they finally breached the Filipinas fort late in the opening stanza as Mina Tanaka bundled home from close range.
20-year-old defender Toko Koga grabbed a second shortly after, once again via a well-placed Honoka Hayashi corner, before Remina Chiba slid in to meet a deep Aoba Fujino cross and make it three midway through the second period.
Ten minutes after her 57th minute introduction, starlet Manaka Matsukubo strode into the box, brushed off two challenges and fired home between another defender and the keeper to score her first Nadeshiko goal.
Even with coach Nils Nielsen opting to rotate a fleet of first-choice stars, Japan didn’t ease up, with Koga grabbing a close-range second and substitutes Momoko Tanikawa and Riko Ueki joining the scoring party late on.
Selected images courtesy of the AFC
