Mini Matildas knocked out of AFC Championships

The Mini Matildas have gone down to AFC U-16 Women’s Championship hosts China 2-0 to bow out of the competition.

The Mini Matildas dream of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Costa Rica came to an abrupt halt last night as China accounted for the Australians 2 goals to Nil in a tense and hard fought battle at the Jiangning Stadium in Nanjing.

Right from the onset, Australia were confident, displaying a real sense of purpose driving deep into the forward line but were simply unable to finish the job against a well-oiled Chinese machine.

Errors cost the Australians dearly as China took full advantage and pounced to now advance to the semi-finals against DPR Korea on Thursday.

It took until the 31st minute mark for China to register their first goal through the class of Cui Yuhan who was lurking inside the box and found herself on the end of number of passes to strike home the shot from short range.

With their confidence up, the Chinese pressed again and created another opportunity that Fan Yuqui capitalised on and all of a sudden Australia were in trouble at two nil down heading into the break.

Asked after the game about the result, Wilson said “I am very proud of the girls. The first 15 minutes we played the way we planned to, our tactics were good and the girls were all switched on.

"Slowly but surely China gained more possession, got into the game and became comfortable. We switched off for one small moment and they took advantage of that and they scored and good teams do that at this level.”

On the future of the group, Wilson said, “We have some superstars in the making coming through with young Alexandra Chidiac who is still only 14 years old and still qualifies at this age level for the next tournament.

"We have Sunny Franco and Ayesha Norrie (Brisbane Roar) along with a couple of other players who can really advance forward in their football if they continue their development. I just hope that when they all go back home, they are not too disappointed in terms of what happened out here today and pursue their dreams of playing for the Matildas in the future.”