Reborn from a desperate situation! Wuhan women's football team blooms on the top of Asia

Special correspondent said the report "Expectation-disappointment-hope-adversity-rebirth-despair-harvest" - if you want to sum up the process of Wuhan Chegujiang University Women's Football Team winning this AFC Champions League in a few words, it must be like this. After achieving five consecutive championships in the Women's Super League, the Wuhan women's football team is facing greater pressure to survive and develop this year, and the loss of core players has led to a discount in strength, and it is currently only ranked seventh in the Women's Super League. It is in such an unfavorable situation that on the evening of May 24, 2025, at the Wuhan Sports Center Stadium, Wuhan Chegujiang University Women's Football Team faced Melbourne City Women's Football Team. The two sides fought 1-1 in 120 minutes, and the Wuhan women's football team finally defeated the opponent 5-4 through a penalty shootout, won the first Women's AFC Champions League, and qualified for the first FIFA Women's Champions Cup next year!

Wuhan Women's Football FAC Champions League victory is not accidental, it is the result of the club's strategy, the players' hard work, the fans' perseverance and the full support of relevant departments.

The 2024/2025 AFC Women's Champions League is the first AFC Women's Asian Champions League tournament organized by the AFC, with a total of 21 teams participating. As a five-time women's Super League winning team, the Wuhan women's football team successfully qualified for the main competition, and the goal is, of course, to aim for the championship. On October 3, 2024, the Wuhan women's football team started the group stage journey at home, the first game against Abu Dhabi Village, Wuhan scored at the beginning, but in stoppage time, the opponent scored two goals in a row and suffered a black start, and more importantly, the core of the team Zhang Linyan suffered a serious injury and missed the remaining games of the AFC Champions League. On October 6, in the second match against the Sabah women's football team, the Wuhan women's football team defeated the opponent 7-0 with full firepower. On October 9, in the third game against Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women's Football Team, Wuhan Women's Football Team lost 0-2 and advanced to the quarterfinals with the best third place in the group.

Although it was difficult to qualify and lost the home advantage in the quarterfinals, the Wuhan women's football team is still full of desire for the AFC Champions League. During the winter window, although Zhang Linyan, who was in the injury period, switched to Beijing, fortunately, Wang Shuang returned from the Premier League, and the addition of South Korean defender Kim Hye-ri and Kenyan striker Ngesha kept the team's basic plate. On March 23, 2025, the Wuhan women's football team went to Japan to challenge the biggest favorite of the AFC Champions League, Urawa Red Diamonds, and lowered their posture to defend in an all-round passive situation, and finally drew 0-0 with the opponent within 120 minutes.

When summing up the entire AFC Champions League journey, Wuhan women's football coach Chang Weiwei regarded the away game against Urawa as the most crucial game, which is equivalent to climbing a mountain and accumulating enough confidence.

Originally, Urawa Red Diamonds hoped to host the AFC Champions League final after eliminating Wuhan at home, but miscalculated. Wuhan quickly realized that this would be the best chance for the Wuhan women's football team to reach the top of Asia, so through all kinds of efforts, it applied to the AFC to host the right to host the final stage of the event, and the semi-finals and finals were held at the Wuhan Sports Center, which undoubtedly gave the Wuhan women's football team another chance to prove itself.

On May 21, the AFC Champions League semifinals came as scheduled, Wuhan women's football team faced Vietnam Ho Chi Minh City women's football team in the hot weather of Jiangcheng, with goals from Wang Shuang and Song Duan, Wuhan women's football team defeated the opponent 2-0 to advance to the final. It is worth mentioning that the Wuhan women's football team "chose" to play this game at 4 pm instead of 8 pm, because they hope to adjust as soon as possible after the game, so that they can have 4 hours more rest time than the team that played at 8 pm, and the preparation work is thorough and meticulous.

At 20 o'clock on May 24, the first Women's AFC Champions League final was played between Wuhan Women's Football Team and Melbourne City Women's Football Team. Wuhan women's football team conceded a goal in the 76th minute, but the women's football girls never gave up the game, in the 5th minute of stoppage time, Wang Shuang steadily scored a penalty kick, helping Wuhan women's football team to draw 1-1 and continue to survive. After extra time to draw, it went to a penalty shootout. It was another penalty shootout, and it was Chen Chen again, and he saved two goals in a row at a critical moment, and finally Wuhan Women's Football Team defeated Melbourne City 5-4 to win the championship.

This journey to win the championship is not without difficulty, and this AFC Champions League championship has allowed Wuhan Women's Football Team to achieve the full slam of the Asian Women's Football Club championship, and won glory for Wuhan and China!

18,715 people! This is the number of fans in the first women's AFC Champions League final on the evening of the 24th, and it is also the most home fan in the history of the Wuhan women's football team, even exceeding the number of fans present at any game in the past two seasons of the Chinese Super League Wuhan Three Towns, and the last time such a large number of fans went to the Wuhan Sports Center to watch the women's football game, it was back in the 2007 Women's World Cup group stage, in which the Chinese women's football team against Brazil attracted nearly 54,000 fans. I have to say that the attention of the women's football team is becoming hot with the Wuhan women's football team participating in the AFC Champions League and winning the championship.

After the game, Wuhan women's football coach Chang Weiwei's words made people feel a little sad, "Thank you to the fans from all over the country who came to Wuhan to support us, from a few hundred people per game at the Tazihu Sports Center to nearly 20,000 people tonight, coming to the scene to cheer us have more motivation." "This is the true portrayal of the women's football team, during the Women's Super League, even the Wuhan women's football team at its peak, only a few hundred people were present at each home stadium to support them. It is in this context that is not valued or optimistic that the championship trophy of the Wuhan women's football team is even more valuable, and I hope that the enthusiasm of the fans can also be transferred to the Women's Super League and the women's national football team.

As a veteran fan organization in Wuhan, Zhang Chi, president of the Hubei Emo Fan Association, said that in order to support the Wuhan women's football team to play well in the AFC Champions League, he deliberately worked with other fraternal associations to create a stand, closely cooperated, raised a huge national flag at the final site, and cheered for the Wuhan women's football team with the same voice, "At the moment of winning the championship, I feel that all the efforts are meaningful!" As a Wuhan fan, I am extremely proud to be able to witness the team win the Asian championship at home! For the future, we will continue to support the women's football team, and hope that the Wuhan women's football team will maintain its competitiveness and cultivate fresh blood, enhance its international competitiveness, and win glory for Chinese football at a higher level. ”

The "Wuhan Chegujiang University Women's Football Official Fan Store" outside the stadium also attracted the attention of fans. According to the person in charge of the store, this Wuhan women's football theme store has created a precedent for derivatives around Chinese women's football clubs, which is the first in China, and the purpose is mainly to convey the culture of Wuhan fans, and not to consider profits. It is reported that during the AFC Champions League finals from the 21st to the 24th, all the goods in the store were sold out, and the sales exceeded expectations by 100,000 yuan. According to reports, the store will then move to the Tazihu Sports Center, the home of the Wuhan Jiangda Women's Football Team in the Women's Super League, to continue to serve Wuhan fans during the home game.

Wuhan women's football team won the AFC Champions League championship also sparked heated discussions online, on Weibo, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and other mainstream social platforms, Wuhan women's football team won the AFC Champions League related topics rushed to the hot search. Wang Shuang updated social media after the game: "There is no perfect individual, only a perfect team!" We have done it, let everyone see us, we are doing our best for ourselves and for the future of women's football, we are running, defending, leaving honor at home, staying in China, and inspiring everyone who cares about and supports the girls of women's football. Making history is our own story as a women's football club. China Wuhan Chegu Jiangda, we really did it. Thank you to every friend and family who supports us and cares about us, let us continue to fight together in the future, China Wuhan Chegujiang has not won enough! ”

Looking back at the 6 games in which the Wuhan women's football team won the championship, they actually only won two weaker teams Sabah and Ho Chi Minh City in 90 minutes of legal time, lost to Abu Dhabi Village and Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels, and defeated Urawa Red Diamonds and Melbourne City through penalty shootouts. Chang Weiwei summed it up: "Everyone has seen the unity of the players in the AFC Champions League, and the spiritual level is far greater than the technical and tactical level at critical moments. In other words, it is to make full use of the existing strength, combined with reasonable technical and tactical arrangements, coupled with the players' all-out fighting spirit, and finally defeat the strong enemy. This iron rule of winning can be applied to virtually any game, including all teams at the national and club levels, and the Wuhan women's football team has used it to the extreme.

It is worth mentioning that in recent years, after the policy changes of the Football Association and the accumulation of years of experience in winning championships, the Wuhan women's football team has quietly completed the upgrading, and basically formed a stable team with coach Chang Weiwei as the core, veterans such as Wang Shuang, Wu Haiyan, Ma Jun, Chen Chen, Yao Wei, Song Duan, Dai Chen Ying, Song Fei, Zhao Yuxin, etc., young players such as Deng Mengye, Jiang Chenjing, Wang Qianqian, and three functional foreign aids.

According to the AFC schedule and competition system, in order to motivate the teams participating in the first Women's AFC Champions League, a special championship reward of up to 1.3 million US dollars was set up, which is much higher than the 350,000 euros bonus of the Women's Champions League.

On the evening of the 24th, Zhang Jiasheng, deputy director of the General Administration of Sports of the People's Republic of China and secretary of the Party Committee of the Chinese Football Association, Song Kai, chairman of the Chinese Football Association, and Sun Wen, vice chairman of the Chinese Football Association, all came to the scene to witness the whole process of the Wuhan women's football team reaching the top, and awarded trophies and medals to the women's football girls. Before the start of the competition, the leaders of the Chinese Football Association also conducted in-depth exchanges with the Secretary General of the AFC, Windsor John, on the hosting of international events and strengthening cooperation. It can be expected that the Wuhan women's football team winning the AFC Champions League will add a lot of points to participate in higher-level competitions and Wuhan hosting international events in the future, so as to obtain better results and the right to host the event.

Wuhan women's football team's one-season AFC Champions League journey has come to an end, but the team and players still have a difficult task to do next, this year need to strive for better results in the Women's Super League, and undertake the task of Hubei football to win gold in the National Games, Wang Shuang, Wu Haiyan, Yao Wei The three major internationals have gone to the United States non-stop to meet with the women's national football team and continue to fight for the national team. At the same time, the Wuhan women's football team also qualified for the first Women's Champions Cup, and will represent Asia at the end of January 2026, hitting higher honors for Hubei Wuhan and Chinese football on a bigger stage.