Li currently tops the scoring charts in Jordan thanks to the five goals she netted during China’s group stage campaign, three successive victories that – with the 25-year-old excelling throughout – propelled the East Asians through to a last four showdown with their regional rivals and assured them of a place at next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

With the prospect of winning a ninth Women’s Asian Cup title now looming large for China, Li is hoping for more of the same against opponents who finished as runners-up in Group B behind table-topping Australia.

The East Asians rounded off their Group A campaign with a comprehensive 8-1 defeat of host nation Jordan on Thursday, a win that confirmed their position at the top of the table and a last four encounter with either Australia, Japan or Korea Republic from Group B.

After three successive group stage victories, Ren is now looking forward to challenges playing a top side in the semi-finals will bring.

“I think it will be a good test for us to play a stronger team in the semi-finals,” declared the 29-year-old midfielder.

“I am really looking forward to our match in the semi-finals (whoever it is against).

“I also hope we will be able to carry out what our head coach has planned.”

The Icelandic tactician’s statement came after he had watched the East Asians round off their Group A campaign with a comfortable 8-1 win over Jordan – their third successive preliminary stage victory – at the Amman International Stadium on Thursday.

Despite the relative ease with which his table-topping side has moved into the tournament’s knockout phase and qualified for next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup, Eyjolfsson believes the eight-time Asian champions having nothing to fear when they face one of Australia, Japan or Korea Republic in the last four next Tuesday.

Both sides finished third in their respective groups to set up the crucial play-off for fifth place at the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2018, the winner of which is guaranteed a place at France 2019 along with China PR, Thailand, Australia and Japan who have all made the semi-finals in Jordan.

Despite his side being far from favourites to win Monday’s eagerly anticipated showdown, Benlarbi believes the Philippines are more than ready to give their all given what is at stake.

“We still have a chance to qualify for the World Cup, so we must play without any pressure,” he said.

“The Philippines have absolutely nothing to lose as nobody really expected us to be in the position that we find ourselves in.

“We must give our all, as we have 90 minutes to reach the World Cup, it is potentially a once-in-a-lifetime moment for my players.

“If they all do their very best, they can achieve their goals.”

Despite starting the stronger of the two sides in the crucial Matchday Three clash against the Nadeshiko, Australia found themselves a goal behind, and minutes away from elimination before a late Sam Kerr strike salvaged a draw, sending the Matildas to the semi-finals and next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup.

Van Egmond told the-AFC.com her side were pleased to have survived the scare.

“We’re relieved,” she said, adding: “To go down 1-0, we knew we needed to get a goal back to finish top of the group or even just to finish second.

“Credit to the girls, we put in a really good shift and fought for the 90 minutes, and also credit to a really good Japanese side.”

Kerr’s late heroics not only saved Australia from a first ever group stage elimination, but rocketed them to the top of Group B and set up a meeting with the same Thailand side they beat 5-0 in Perth just three weeks ago.

Park, who has played all but three minutes of the Malditas’ campaign thus far, said her side has unfinished business in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2018, after losses to China PR and Thailand denied them a place in the semi-finals.

Now, with a coveted berth at France 2019 up for grabs, the 26-year-old says her team haven’t given up hope, despite the 16th-ranked Koreans being strongly favoured to win the tie.

“As each game has gone on, we’ve known that we have a chance to qualify for the World Cup,” she said.

“It was pretty disappointing to lose to Thailand. I don’t think the score really reflected how the game went and to make it to this fifth-place match is a great achievement for the Philippines, but I know we want just a little more than that.”

Yoon Duk-yeo’s charges were eliminated, despite remaining unbeaten and not conceding a single goal in the group stage, by virtue of their inability to find the net in matches against group rivals Australia and Japan.

A standout performer for the East Asians in all three Group B fixtures, Cho revealed her pride at Korea Republic’s efforts.

“We put in great performances in all the matches even though we didn’t qualify for the semi-finals,” she said. 

“It would have been much better if we made it there but still the players did their best. Individually each player has done very well. We did our best in the match with Vietnam but we couldn’t do anything about the other matches.

“We met Asia’s strongest teams, Australia and Japan, and our aim was not to concede and we managed that so that is an important thing to take from the tournament.”