Qualifiers – Group A Preview: Korea Republic confident, Myanmar and Vietnam relishing challenge

Bell is confident defender Kim Hyeri is a capable replacement for captain Cho So-hyun, who has been ruled out of the Qualifiers by injury.

“Cho So-hyun came into the camp after a long injury, West Ham gave her the all clear so that she can participate here and we were very hopeful and she was good in training,” said the Englishman.

“Unfortunately she suffered an injury to her ankle and she’s very disappointed that she can’t participate but we had to look after the welfare of the player.”

Despite Korea Republic’s status as group favourites, Bell said his team will not take Vietnam and Myanmar lightly.

“I’ve been in football all my life and a coach for a very long time, I’ve never taken anything for granted or underestimated an opponent so we’ve put an emphasis these last few weeks in training analysing every single player from each team

“We are well prepared for this tournament and we are looking forward to our opening match tomorrow.”

Tin Myint Aung is also relishing the prospect of facing Korea Republic on Monday with the Myanmar head coach saying the Southeast Asians are coming into the Qualifiers well prepared.

“We are happy to have reached this stage of the tournament. We’ve received plenty of support from our federation,” said Tin.

“Our women’s team has shown marked improvement over the years and it’s all down to the hard work we have put in, hence we will work towards getting the win tomorrow (against Korea Republic).”

Vietnam head coach Mai Duc Chung, whose charges will only open their campaign against Myanmar on Thursday, said the extra days will be put to good use.

“We have just completed a successful SEA Games last year and we are relieved that we have got some extra days that will be used to finalise preparations for the tournament,” said Mr. Chung.

“The Korea Republic team are highly rated in Asia, I think they are the favourites in this tournament, while we are quite familiar with Myanmar, having faced them at the 2019 SEA Games. They have made some improvements to their squad but we know who we are going up against.

“We have called up a few young players and we are going to test them in the next couple of days. Hopefully we will come out on top.”

The top two teams from Group A will advance to the Play-offs with the Group B sides, with the winners to join Japan in the Olympics.

Fixtures

Monday
Myanmar vs Korea Republic
Kick-off: 19:00 (UTC +9)

Thursday
Vietnam vs Myanmar
Kick-off: 19:00 (UTC +9)

Sunday
Korea Republic vs Vietnam
Kick-off: 15:00 (UTC +9)

(All matches at Jeju World Cup Stadium, Seogwipo)