Having guided the Steel Roses to pole position in Group A – as well as a ticket to next year’s FIFA Women’s World Cup – the Icelandic tactician and the eight-time Asian champions are now braced for the eagerly anticipated showdown with their regional rivals and defending champions.

Despite the team’s illustrious past and the excellent form China displayed whilst racking up three successive group stage victories, the 1999 World Cup runners-up, by their own admission, enter the game as underdogs. Not that Eyjolfsson is overly concerned.

“Of course, we have a chance against Japan,” he declared.

Nuengrutai confirmed Nildhamrong's departure from the squad, but issued a reminder that her side’s impressive performances thus far were not solely down to the 21-year-old’s influence.

“Suchawadee is not only an important footballer, but she is also a university student and we emphasise that as well,” she said, “that’s why we left her to go back to the US and let her finish her final exams so she will be able to join us once again next year.

“Our progress in this tournament is not just about her. Even though we’ve reached our goal of making the semi-finals, we want to improve ourselves and test ourselves against the benchmark to get better and to help prepare ourselves for a tough (World Cup) tournament next year.”

The Nadeshiko finished second in a group featuring tournament favourites Australia and highly-impressive Korea Republic, while semi-final opponents China PR breezed to wins against Thailand, the Philippines and Jordan.

Iwabuchi, who has impressed many with her performances in Amman, believes the battle-hardened reigning champions will take a slight edge into the match.

“After two tough matches against Korea and Australia we are very tired,” she said.

“But when you look at Group A, China did not have difficult games like us so I can say we have had good preparation and have an advantage because of this.”

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.

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.”

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.”

The Matildas were on the verge of exiting the tournament at the group stage for the first time in their history, until Sam Kerr popped up with an 86th minute goal to level the tie at 1-1 and send both teams through to the next round.

A relieved Stajcic said he was proud of his side’s willingness to fight back after falling behind to Mizuho Sakaguchi’s 63rd minute goal.

“Thankfully we’ve got great character in our team and great spirit,” he said, adding “we fought until the end, until we got that goal back.”

“Not only is there good skill, good fitness and good speed in our team, there’s also good team spirit and the will to fight to the end, so I’m really proud of the group for that quality that we have.”