AFC Women's Champions League - Patient Tokyo Verdy get their reward

Tokyo: Naoki Kusunose applauded his players for staying focused after Tokyo Verdy Beleza cruised to a 5-0 win against Stallion Laguna FC in their AFC Women’s Champions League 2025/26™ quarter-final on Saturday.

Having suffered elimination at the same stage last season with Urawa Red Diamonds Ladies, the 61-year-old Kusunose was delighted to overcome the hurdle in his second attempt after a controlled performance from the reigning Japan WE League champions.

#AWCL | Quarter-finals: Tokyo Verdy Beleza (JPN) 5-0 Stallion Laguna FC (PHI)

“I’m thankful for the big margin victory but we had problems managing the game in the first half and that’s something we have to improve on ahead of the domestic matches coming up,” said Kusunose.

“Today, they (Stallion Laguna) sat in a deep block and that made the situation tough for us, so we had to be patient and I think we dealt with that quite well."

“At half time, we told the players to be patient. Even though we were a goal up, I reminded the players that they needed to keep going and get more goals to make the game comfortable for us.”

After much probing, Tokyo Verdy broke the deadlock in the 41st minute through Moka Hiwatari and then went on a blitz after the break.

Despite exiting the competition, there was a sense of achievement for Stallion Laguna with head coach Ernest Nierras seeing this as a sign of better things to come for women’s football in the Philippines.

“This is very historic for our team because this is the highest we’ve ever been to in this competition,” said Nierras. “We have a very small league but we have the biggest heart and hopefully, we were able to demonstrate that in the game. We promised to give it our all and we tried to do that."

“This game is very inspiring to us because it shows us the potential of the women’s game in Asia. It shows us that we have to keep improving our league and hopefully, we can come back and produce better performances.”

Tokyo Verdy will meet Australia’s Melbourne City FC in the semi-finals in May.

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