TEHRAN - First time champions will be crowned after Japan defeated Iran 3-2 in their AFC Women’s Futsal Asian Cup China 2025 semi-final at the Hohhot Sports Center on Thursday.

Two-time runners-up Japan will face Thailand in Saturday’s final while Iran, who won the previous two editions, will face China in the third-place playoff, with the winners to qualify for the FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup Philippines 2025. 

Japan got off to a blistering start with Naomi Matsumoto seeing her grounded effort blocked while at the other end, Iran hit back on the counter-attack with Fereshteh Khosravi forcing keeper Nene Inoue into a save.

Backed into their own half, Iran were left stunned in the third minute after Mika Eguchi collected her own blocked effort to set up Risa Ikadai to score from inside a packed box.

Another brilliant play from Japan left Iran chasing a two-goal deficit a minute later when Inoue launched a long pass to Yuka Iwasaki, who teed up Kyoka Takahashi to drill the ball into the bottom left corner.

Iran, however, refused to concede defeat and Torkman showed her class in deadball situations when she drilled the ball past a sea of Japanese players into the bottom right corner in the 32nd minute.

The Central Asian side poured forward after that but despite utilizing the power play, the equalizer eluded them as Japan took the place in the final and booked their ticket to the FIFA Women’s Futsal World Cup.