Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club cannot continue the fairy tale

In the semi-final match of the AFC Champions League Women's 2024 - 2025 (Asian Women's Cup C1) which took place yesterday afternoon, May 21, Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club had to play away at Wuhan Jiangda Club (China). The home team is considered very strong when it defeated the most traditional team in Japanese women's football, Urawa Red Diamonds (who easily beat Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club 2-0 in the group stage) in the quarter-finals. But before that, Huynh Nhu and her teammates also created an earthquake in the quarter-finals, when they made an unbelievable comeback to beat Abu Dhabi Country Club (UAE) with a score of 5-4. Therefore, coach Doan Thi Kim Chi's team is expected to continue the fairy tale when facing Wuhan Jiangda Club, to win a ticket to the final of the continental arena.

Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club (left) cannot enter the final of the Asian Women's Cup C1

PHOTO: KHA HOA

However, having to play away and face the strongest opponent in Chinese women's football is a huge challenge for the HCMC women's club. Wuhan Jiangda club is still above the representative from Vietnam.

Similar to the matches between the Vietnamese and Chinese women's teams, Wuhan Jiangda Club still has a clear advantage in terms of physical strength. Not to mention the foreign players, the home team's domestic players also have superior physique and physical strength compared to the Vietnamese girls. This difference helps Wuhan Jiangda Club completely control the game. The Chinese players use many long, high balls to take advantage of the physical strength of the foreign players in attack, while also wearing down the opponent's strength. Wuhan Jiangda Club's opening goal comes from their physical superiority. The defender of Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club was unable to stop the tall Kenyan striker Engesha Obunyu from dribbling down the sideline and then passing back to the second line, opening up an opportunity for Wang Shuang to beautifully curl the ball to break the deadlock in the 34th minute.

Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club is still weak in physical strength.

Thanks to their good physical strength, Wuhan Jiangda Club played fast, attacking and defending rhythmically and maintaining a stable formation, making it difficult for the Ho Chi Minh City women's team players to deploy the ball. In particular, Mali midfielder Saratou Traore was the highlight with his endurance, ability to control the match, compete and recover the ball well. The midfielders of Ho Chi Minh City women's club seemed to disappear in front of the muscular and flexible midfield of the Chinese representative. Therefore, the strikers above, Huynh Nhu and foreign player Sabrina Cabrera, also fell into a state of hunger for the ball. As a result, during the entire match, Ho Chi Minh City women's club only had 2 shots on target, but did not cause any difficulties for the opponent's goalkeeper. Wuhan Jiangda Club scored the winning goal in the 55th minute thanks to Song Duan.

Losing 0-2 in the end, Ho Chi Minh City Women's Club stopped at the semi-finals of the Asian Women's Cup 1, but anyway, this is still a very encouraging achievement for coach Doan Thi Kim Chi and her team.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/clb-nu-tphcm-khong-the-viet-tiep-co-tich-185250521203035321.htm