AFC Women's Champions League - Naegohyang‘s Ri promises improvement

Vientiane: Ri Yu Il has no doubt that improvements are needed from his Naegohyang Women’s FC side despite a comfortable 3-0 win against Ho Chi Minh City Women’s FC in their AFC Women’s Champions League 2025/26™ quarter-final on Saturday.

The DPR Korea side only had one goal to show despite a dominant opening half with Kim Hye Yong’s 40th minute header giving her team the lead before further efforts from Jong Kum and Kim Kyong Yong after the break added gloss to the final result.

#AWCL | Quarter-finals: Naegohyang Women’s FC (PRK) 3-0 Ho Chi Minh City Women's FC (VIE)

With a tougher match to come in the last four against either defending champions Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC of China PR or Korea Republic's Suwon FC Women, Ri said he will do his utmost to ensure there is a step-up in performance.

“The semi-finals will be tougher as the opponents will be stronger and we have to go back and keep working and improving so that we can perform at the higher level that will be required.”

Goalscorer Kim - who was one of several players who joined the team immediately after the AFC Women’s Asian Cup Australia 2026™ - felt her performance was not up to par with the team squandering 12 of 15 attempts.

“To be honest, I wasn’t fully prepared for the match and I have to keep working to get back to my best so that I can perform better in the next match,” said Kim.

Ho Chi Minh City reached the semi-finals last season but had to come to terms with the disparity in physical level as Naegohyang did not relent on their pressure, with head coach Nguyen Hong Pham admitting his Vietnamese side struggled to cope.

“Congratulations to Naegohyang for the win,” said Hong Pham. “I want to thank my players for giving a good game despite the difficult weather conditions. Naegohyang are stronger physically than us but we are happy with how we performed from a technical aspect."

“In the first half, the first 40 minutes when we were still physically strong, we showed a good game. After conceding the first goal and in the second half, we suffered physically and we were not able to compete.”

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