North Korea's Naegohyang FC beats Suwon FC Women 2-1 in AFC Champions League semis

By Yoo Jee-ho

SUWON, South Korea, May 20 (Yonhap) -- Naegohyang Women's FC of North Korea defeated South Korea's Suwon FC Women 2-1 in a highly anticipated football match between teams of the two Koreas on Wednesday, booking a spot in the final of the top Asian club tournament in the process.

Naegohyang rallied from a 1-0 deficit in the second half with goals by Choe Kum-ok and Kim Kyong-yong in the semifinals of the Asian Football Confederation Women's Champions League amid heavy downpours at Suwon Stadium in Suwon, 30 kilometers south of Seoul.

Japanese forward Haruhi Suzuki had the only goal for Suwon FC Women, whose captain Ji So-yun misfired a penalty that would have knotted the score in the 79th minute.

In the final scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday in Suwon, Naegohyang will face Tokyo Verdy Beleza of Japan with US$1 million at stake. Tokyo defeated Melbourne City FC 3-1 in the other semifinal match earlier Wednesday.

The Suwon-Naegohyang match was played in front of a sizable crowd witnessing the first match between women's football clubs of the Koreas on South Korean soil.

This was the second meeting of this tournament between the two sides. Naegohyang had blanked Suwon 3-0 in their Group C meeting in November last year, when Myanmar's Yangon served as the centralized venue.

Naegohyang got the better of Suwon FC Women once again, despite getting badly outplayed in the first half.

Suwon FC Women found the woodwork twice -- Suzuki's header hitting the right post in the 21st minute and then Mileninha finding the left post from close range in the 30th minute.