Counterattack! Wuhan women's football team advanced to the semifinals of the AFC Champions League

Special correspondent said the report In the quarterfinals of the Women's AFC Champions League that ended on March 23, Wuhan Chegujiang University Women's Football Team challenged the favorite Urawa Red Diamonds away from home. In an extremely passive situation, Wuhan Women's Football Team drew 0-0 with the opponent in 120 minutes, and then eliminated the opponent 6-5 in the penalty shootout and successfully advanced to the semifinals.

Last year's AFC Champions League group stage home one win and two losses quite humiliating "lying" into the quarterfinals, this year's Women's Super League started three consecutive home games without a win, the former Women's Super League overlord Wuhan Chegujiang Women's Football Team's recent form can be said to be very bad. Therefore, going to Japan to challenge the Urawa Red Diamonds, who have been in hot form recently, the outside world has pinched a cold sweat for the Wuhan women's football team.

Coming to the Kumagai Sports and Culture Park Stadium, Wuhan sent a full lineup of three foreign aids, Wang Shuang was on the bench because he had just recovered from injury, and Urawa was the starting of 11 Japanese players. Soon after the start of the game, Wuhan foreign player Teresa burst into the penalty area and almost broke the goal, but was saved. Urawa then quickly took the initiative in all aspects, testing Wuhan's defense with multiple shots, but fortunately, the 36-year-old veteran goalkeeper Ding Xuan showed a steady performance to protect the goal.

Yibian fought again, and Urawa's attack was more ferocious, and it was still Ding Xuan's high and low blocks to keep the draw. In the 66th minute, Wang Shuang came on as a substitute and played a certain role in the situation on the field in Wuhan, but the overall disadvantage was still obvious, and the two sides drew 0-0 in the 90th minute. In extra time, Urawa launched a tidal attack, and players such as Tomoko Fujisaki and Hana Takahashi shot inches away from the goal. In the last minute of the game, Wuhan used a trick to replace Ding Xuan with goalkeeper Chen Chen, and Wuhan stubbornly drew 0-0 with Urawa in a passive situation of 29% to 71% possession and 2-23 shots.

In the penalty shootout, Wuhan Wu Haiyan was saved in the second round, and Urawa Fujisaki Tomoko missed in the third round, and the two sides drew 4-4 in the first five rounds. In the "roulette" stage, Chen Chen saved the penalty kicks of Miki Ito and Yu Endo, Tang Han missed the penalty and Xu Qianqian scored the winning goal. In the end, the Wuhan women's football team eliminated the opponent 6-5 on penalties and advanced to the semifinals!

The semi-finals and final of the AFC Champions League will be played in a centralized venue from May 21 to 24, and both will be single-legged. Wuhan Women will face Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City Women in the semi-finals, who defeated Abu Dhabi Village Women 5-4 in the quarter-finals, and the other semi-final will be played between Incheon Hyundai Women and Melbourne City Women (Women). So far, the Wuhan women's football team has won the group stage, advanced to the quarterfinals and advanced to the semi-finals with a total of $300,000 in prize money, and if they win the championship, they are expected to receive an additional $1 million in prize money.

Once upon a time, Wuhan women's football team was nicknamed "Women's Super Evergrande" by fans, however, since last year, the dominance of Wuhan women's football team began to decline, and almost gave up the women's championship at the beginning of the season, the league was only one point ahead of Changchun to win the championship, and the FA Cup only won the fifth place. In the international arena, the Wuhan women's football team, known as the highest-ranked team in Asia, was closed at home in the AFC Champions League group stage.

For many reasons, since last year, Wuhan has lost many international-level players such as Zhang Linyan, and has also lost super foreign players like Temwa and Tabitha. The departure of a large number of main players has led to a decline in the strength of the Wuhan women's football team, which is especially obvious in attack. For example, in the 2023 season, Wuhan scored a total of 76 goals in the Women's Super League, of which Temwa contributed 30 goals, while in the 2024 season, only 34 goals were scored, and the most goals were scored by Zhang Linyan with 8 goals. With both now departed, it is a big question who will carry the burden of scoring. Foreign strikers Theresa and Traore are not prolific forwards, so Wang Shuang's state is crucial.

After returning to Wuhan at the beginning of the year, due to injury, Wang Shuang only played two games, the first was played for half an hour in the third round of the Women's Super League against Shanghai, and the other was the AFC Champions League on the 23rd for nearly 60 minutes. It was clear that she was not at her best physically and in the best form.

In addition to foreign aid and core players, young players are also urgently needed by Wuhan women's football team. Looking back at the first four games of the new season, Wuhan did not have many young players available except for the youngest in the team, Jiang Chenjing (21 years old), who could contribute to the team. Compared with the situation of most teams with U21 players everywhere, the current squad of Wuhan women's football team shows an "aging" trend.

Finally, since this year is the year of the National Games, Wuhan Jiangda Women's Football Team is bound to undertake the task of winning medals in this major event. Coach Chang Wei has publicly stated that the main task of the team this year is to compete for gold in the National Games. For the Wuhan women's football team, the challenges on all fronts this year may be greater than last year, and there is still a long way to go to achieve revival.