SYDNEY (AP) — By the time Saki Kumagai scored to make it 3-0 on Wednesday, it was clear her Japan team was going to beat South Korea and feature in a final against Australia for the third time in four Women’s Asian Cup tournaments.

Riko Ueki opened the scoring in the 15th minute and Maika Hamano squeezed a right-foot strike between the near post and the goalkeeper in the 25th to give Japan a 2-0 halftime lead. Kumagai and Remina Chiba added second-half goals as Japan converted a glut of possession and field position into a lopsided 4-1 semifinal win at Sydney’s Stadium Australia over the 2022 runner-up.

South Korea edged the Australians on goal difference in the group stage but struggled from the outset against Japan, the top-ranked team in Asia.

Japan could have gone ahead 3-0 before halftime with Aoba Fujino finding the back of the net in the 43rd minute, but the goal was disallowed after a VAR review for a handball much earlier in the attacking movement.

Japan increased its tally to 27 goals in the continental championship when Kumagai headed in from Momoko Tanikawa’s swinging corner kick in the 75th. It was just her fourth goal in a long international career.

The Nadeshiko finally conceded a goal in the tournament when Kang Chae-rim turned and fired in a right-foot shot from close range in the 78th.

But Chiba restored the three-goal buffer with a powerful strike to make it 4-1 in the 81st, giving Japan momentum ahead of Saturday’s final in Sydney.

“Please don’t tell Australia, but we have played better than we did today — but we were good today and I was happy with them,” Japan coach Nils Nielsen said. “Because it is not easy, you sort of get into a rhythm, and it wasn’t that rhythm. We needed to find more, we needed to find a gear more, and we did.”

Japan beat Australia in back-to-back finals in 2014 and ’18 but neither team reached the championship decider in 2022, when China edged South Korea in the final.

Australia has reached the championship match four previous times since joining the Asian confederation but has only won the title once, in 2010. Japan lost four finals before finally clinching the title in 2014 for the first time.

Japan is the only Asian team to have won the Women’s World Cup — beating the U.S. on penalties in the 2011 final.

Advancing Australia

Sam Kerr scored the winner in the 58th minute to secure Australia’s 2-1 win in the first of the semifinals over defending champion China, two years after losing in the World Cup semifinals on home soil.

All four semifinalists here have qualified automatically for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

In playoffs Thursday for two more spots in Brazil, Taiwan will take on North Korea and Philippines faces Uzbekistan at the Gold Coast.

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