An own goal from Chuong Thi Kieu in the first half and a Fuka Tsunoda strike six minutes into the second half paved the way for Urawa to achieve their third straight victory to finish top of the group.

Having already taken the team all the way in the AFC Women’s Club Championship™ ۲۰۲۳ title, Kusunose is targeting a successful run in this inaugural competition.

“We tried our best and we won the game,” said Kusunose. “We will continue to try our best to reach our final target.

“Honestly the Vietnam number 9 (Huynh Nhu) and 10 (Phan Thi Trang) are good players which we had to adapt tactically to. We were able to score twice which made it a bit comfortable for us and we used that opportunity well.

“Yuzuho (Shiokoshi) and Miki (Ito) are good players. We think that the best for them now is to grow together with the team and if they have a chance to go to Europe, that would be great for them.”

While Urawa and Ho Chi Minh City confirmed their places in the knockout stage with a game to spare on Wednesday, Taichung Blue Whale Women’s Football Team left it late to secure their berth.

A 4-0 win against Odisha sealed progression with goals from Chen Jin Wen (2), Maho Tanaka and Silawan Intanmee, however, head coach Lu Kuei Hua wasn’t too impressed with the overall performance.

“Obviously when we win, we are very happy,” said Lu. “But if we look at the game closer, we had a lot of opportunities in the first half which we didn’t make full use of.

“Even though we made many changes in the second half, the situation remained the same, because of this I’m still not very satisfied.

“The previous games were affected by the weather, I thought we played rather well. Today the weather wasn’t a factor and we didn’t play well.”

Urawa, Ho Chi Minh City and Taichung now await the knockout stage draw scheduled to be held on January 16 in Kuala Lumpur, to know who their quarter-final opponents are.