China’s Steel Roses reach Tokyo 2020 women’s football play-offs after beating Taiwan 5-0
- Team makes it two wins from two in rescheduled qualifiers despite not training during coronavirus quarantine in Brisbane
- Women’s footballers face Australia on Thursday to decide whether they meet South Korea or Vietnam in March play-offs
First half goals from Tang Jiali, Wu Haiyan, Li Ying and a brace from Wang Shanshan ensured that qualification was ensured before the interval as the Steel Roses made it two wins from two in their rescheduled qualifiers.
The four-team tournament was scheduled to take place in Wuhan, the epicentre of the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, before being moved to Nanjing and then Sydney.
The players and staff showed no signs of the virus and were given the all clear by Queensland authorities, although their prolonged hotel stay meant that the tournament needed to be rescheduled once more.
China played Thailand in their delayed opener on Friday, after being allowed to leave Brisbane on Thursday. A 6-1 win in that coupled with the 5-0 win over Taiwan means that China are through to the play-offs.
China, who top the group on six points, play Australia in their final game on Thursday. The hosts play Thailand on Monday evening having beaten Taiwan 7-0 in their first game.
The top two from this group face off against either South Korea or Vietnam, who beat out Myanmar in the other qualifiers, after North Korea pulled out.
China faces missing out on all men’s team events in Tokyo
Those two-legged games are scheduled to be played home and away in March, although it remains to be seen if they will go ahead as planned.
