Making her 46th international appearance for her country, it was Elise Kellond-Knight's first ever Matildas goal that proved the winner after Korea Republic striker Park Eun Sun's penalty had earlier cancelled out Katrina Gorry's screamer that initially opened the scoring two minutes into the second-half.
Australia’s fourth victory from four AFC Women’s Asian Cup matches against Korea Republic means it will meet Japan in the final on Sunday night after the world champion accounted for China 2-1 in the final minute of extra-time in the other semi-final.
Matildas interim coach Alen Stajcic was elated with all of his players and the approach they took into the contest to take the game up to their opponents, who had previously not conceded a goal in the tournament.
“We’ve got so many good attacking players and we saw that tonight. We created nine or ten really good chances, we only scored two but I thought we dominated the majority of the game, I thought we dominated the chances and I think we thoroughly deserved the win,” Stajcic said.
“We put them (Korea Republic) under so much pressure in midfield that we just didn’t let them play, and that’s how we’re going to play ... if teams are going to beat us they’re going to have to beat us with good skill and they’re going to have to be able to play under pressure.
“I’m extremely proud of the group. They worked so hard, they were disciplined, they attacked well, they were positive the whole game, even after the penalty they just got on with it and didn’t sit back and wait at 1-1, we wanted to go out and win the game and I said that would be our philosophy, we’re going to go out and try to win games rather than sit back and try not to lose.”
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