Action from Japan v DPR Korea : AFC/STANLEY CHOU

KUALA LUMPUR: Defending champions Japan will be going all out for victory when they face Thailand on Monday to decide which team will join Group B winners DPR Korea in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship semi-finals.

Japan were beaten 1-0 by DPR Korea on Thursday and need only a draw to qualify from the group. The Koreans are already through to the semi-finals after their 7-1 win over Thailand on Saturday.

Japanese coach Hiroshi Yoshida’s team showed exceptional skills against the Koreans but their physical inferiority meant they were unable to trouble their opponents’ defenders, despite twice hitting the woodwork.

Yoshida’s team will face a similar problem against the Thais but he has faith in his players’ abilities.

“We may be smaller but I think we have enough skills to compete with any team in the world,” he said.

“Our players know what we have to do against Thailand. The main thing is to qualify for the semi-finals and that will be our aim.”

“We have to learn our lessons from our loss to Korea and come out stronger against Thailand.”

Thailand finished a surprising third in the previous tournament, defeating Korea Republic in the third-fourth placed match.

However, the current team is vastly different from the squad who played two years ago and coach Chana Yodprang is not expecting much from the Japanese game.

“My players will try their best but they are very inexperienced at this level,” he said. “Japan are a very strong team and I believe they are favourites to go through to the next round.”

“Although we lost 7-1 to DPR Korea, I thought we played well. We want to improve against the Japanese. That is the point of this tournament for us, to gain experience and improve as we go along.”

Thailand need nothing short of a victory to eliminate Japan and take their place in the semi-finals.