China, S. Korea Olympic qualifier rescheduled

An Olympic qualification play-off between the women’s football teams of China and South Korea has been rescheduled for June, following postponements because of the coronavirus outbreak.

It is now planned that the two legs will be played on June 4 and 9, with venues to be decided later.

The winners of the two-legged tie will advance to this summer’s Olympics.

The games were originally scheduled for March, with China’s home match set to be played in Australia because of how bad the coronavirus outbreak was in China, having originated in Wuhan.

They were initially pushed back until April, but with South Korea now also experiencing a number of coronavirus cases, they have again been postponed.

In the other Asian play-off, Australia have a five-goal advantage after the first keg of their tie with Vietnam and the second leg, in Vietnam, is set to be played behind closed doors.

South Korea are 20th in the FIFA world rankings, five places below China, but neither has won an Olympic medal before.

With matches in Tokyo due to begin on July 22, time is running out for the teams to face one another.

Asian football has been particularly impacted by the coronavirus outbreak and FIFA and the AFC today agreed to postpone the men’s qualifiers for the World Cup in March and June.

Travel restrictions are in place across much of the continent because of the outbreak.

There have been more than 80,000 confirmed cases in China and in excess of 7,400 in South Korea. – Eurosport