CommBank Young Matildas fall to six-time champions Japan 5-1 | Football Australia

The CommBank Young Matildas have been defeated in the AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup 2024™ semi-final, falling to a superb Japan 5-1.

Goals to Hiromi Yoneda, Uno Shiragaki, Maya Hijikata, and Chinari Sasai, as well as an own goal off Australia’s Naomi Chinnama, sealed the result for the six-time champions. Peta Trimis scored the only CommBank Young Matildas goal. 

It was the fourth time that Australia have made the semi-finals of an AFC U20 Women’s Asian Cup and they will now have the chance to equal their best-ever finish of 2006 when they take on Korea Republic in the third-place match on Saturday.

Head Coach Leah Blayney made three changes to the side that defeated Chinese Taipei in the third group stage game. Indiana Dos Santos, Maddie Caspers and Milly Boughton came into the side in place of Shay Hollman, Kahli Johnson and Claudia Cicco. That meant that the team was the same as the one that defeated Korea Republic in game one.

Japan started on the front foot and immediately made the most of their early possession. A whipped corner that the Young Matildas failed to clear found defender Hiromi Yoneda at the back post, who was able to head it home to open the scoring for Nadeshiko.

Australia struggled to deal with the intensity of Japan’s attacking play. Suzu Amano came close after getting on the end of a pinpoint Rio Sasaki cross, and Chloe Lincoln made a superb save to quickly come off her line and smother a chance from Ai Tsujisawa minutes later.

Regardless of the way the momentum is going, it only takes one chance to score a goal. Moments after defending another set piece, a fine ball from Milly Boughton found Peta Trimis in space behind the Japanese defence. Trimis made no mistake in a one-on-one situation and slotted