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| AFC Women’s Asian Cup |
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| An confident of Korea progress |
HO CHI MINH CITY - Coach An Ik-soo believes Korea Republic still have a good chance of progressing to the semi-finals of the AFC Women's Asian Cup when they take on Chinese Taipei in their final Group B game at Army Stadium on Monday.
After a surprise 3-1 victory over Japan in their opening game, Korea Republic were brought back to earth somewhat when they were outplayed in the 2-0 defeat to Australia on Saturday.
Victory against Group B's bottom side should see them through to the last four, although they will have to wait for the result in the other game between Japan and Australia at Thong Nat Stadium before the two semi-finalists are confirmed.
And An has full belief his side can bounce back from the setback against Australia and go on to set-up a clash with either China or DPR Korea in the knockout phase.
When asked if he was confident his side can still qualify for the latter stages, he replied: "Yes, we are.
"We were very tired against Australia after the game against Japan. We could not produce our best performance and we could not play in our usual manner.
"But we know we can improve so we are not worried about it."
Chinese Taipei, on the other hand, have endured a torrid time in Vietnam, conceding 15 goals in their two defeats and are also yet to find the back of the net.
Coach Chen Shu-chin has used the competition as an opportunity to blood some younger players in a bid to safeguard Chinese Taipei's future prosperity in the women's game.
But after being on the wrong end of an 11-0 score line against Japan last time out, confidence is low in the camp and Chen admitted their final game against Korea Republic could see Chinese Taipei suffer an even bigger beating.
"The next game could be worse than against Japan," Chen said.
"I think the Korea team play very strong and in a similar style to Australia. We will keep our defensive system, we won't change a lot and still put the emphasis on defence and we won't put many new ideas to the players because if you put many new ideas to players I think they can get confused.
"But we will do our best and we're looking forward to it."
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