Hohhot: Iran stayed on course to win a third AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup™ title by overcoming Chinese Taipei in the quarter-finals on Tuesday.
They were made to sweat for the 3-1 victory at the Hohhot Sports Centre by a determined opposition, who were gunning to reach the last four for the first time.
After the match finished 1-1 at the end of regulation time, Fereshteh Khosravi and Farzaneh Tavasoli netted deep in extra time to make it 13 wins in 14 matches overall.
The breakthrough was made by the Central Asians after just two minutes when Mahtab Banaei was fouled by goalkeeper Chu Fang-Yi in the area, allowing Maral Torkaman to step up and smash in the penalty for her second goal of the tournament.
Iran pushed for a second and Chu had to save efforts from Khosravi, Elham Anafjeh and Sara Shirbeigi, with Nasimeh Gholami and Banaei also spurning chances from close range.
They were given a scare when Su Hui-Chi rounded custodian Tavasoli but put the ball wide while off-balance, while Chen Min-Huang twice blazed wide from decent positions.
But Chinese Taipei did find the equaliser in the 18th minute through a well-worked kick-in routine, which saw Chen set up Liu Wen Ling to lash in her tournament-leading fifth goal from range.
Q-final: Chinese Taipei v IR Iran
That elicited a strong response from Iran, who peppered the opposing goal with shots from the restart – only to be as wasteful as they were before.
Their attempts were either tame strikes at Chu or off-target, with only Fereshteh Karimi coming close when she side-footed wide from Sara Shirbeigi’s pass in the 25th minute.
Having been under the cosh for most of the half, Chinese Taipei then came agonisingly close to taking the lead with five minutes left.
Pouncing on a loose ball, Liu Chih-Ling strode down the right and cracked a howitzer off the bar with Tavasoli a mere spectator.
Straight down the other end, Banaei fired wildly from a promising position and the Chinese Taipei rearguard held out to send the tie into extra time.
Torkaman thought she had broken the resistance in the 42nd minute only for Chu to produce a stupendous one-hand fingertip save, with Tavasoli then denying Chen with an outstretched leg a minute later at the opposite end.
Torkaman was foiled again by Chu in the second half of extra time but then with less than two minutes left, Iran struck the fatal blow.
A swift move saw Banaei accelerate away down the left before squaring for Khosravi, who made no mistake at the far post.
There was no way back with seconds left as Tavasoli sent a goal-kick into an empty net with Chinese Taipei throwing everyone forward, sealing a semi-final showdown with Japan on Thursday.