Hawa Homare broke the deadlock with an angledheader six minutes after the break but Li Dongna levelled the score justten minutes from the full-time whistle with a penalty and forced twoteams into a 30-minute extra time.
Iwashimizu Azusa nodded homethe winning goal from the final corner of the extra time to see Japanadvance to their fifth final, where they will face defending championsAustralia, who overcame the Republic of Korea 2-1 after 90 minutes.Australia and Japan drew 2-2 in the group stage.
"As I imagined,it was a tough game. We wanted to win in 90 minutes but it went down to120 minutes. Our players did a very good job today," Japan's coach,Sasaki Norio, said in the post-match press conference.
China's coach, Hao Wei, said he took responsibility for the defeat but praised his players for a good performance.
"Itwas a tough match today. As a coach, I take complete responsibility forthe defeat. We had a little problem with defence with corner kicks butoverall our players performed very well today," said Wei.-VNA