March 4 – The long awaited final AFC play-off between South Korea and China for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Tokyo 2020 has at last been scheduled, more than a year after the final round of qualifying began and seven months after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics should have taken place.
Korea Republic will host the first leg at the Goyang Stadium on April 8 with China hosting the return leg at the Suzhou Olympic Sports Centreon April 13.
The winners will join Australia and hosts Japan in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics scheduled for July 23-August 8.
The AFC qualifiers for the Tokyo Olympics have been an on-off story since the start of the global pandemic.
China were the surprise qualifiers for the final women’s tournament having been one of the first teams in any sport in the world to be quarantined at the start of the global pandemic when arriving in Australia in January 2020 for the final group play-offs.
Having been made to quarantine in Australia on arrival, the tournament was rescheduled with China playing their first match they day after their quarantine ended. They battled their way into to the final four teams despite Australia coming back in injury time in their group game to secure a 1-1 draw against them and win the group on goal difference.
Both teams went through to the final play-offs with Australia beating Vietnam in home and away legs to qualify, but China and South Korea were unable to complete their fixtures before the global lockdown was imposed.
That wait will now end in April.
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