Taiwan was shut down by South Korea yesterday and the prospect of a final showdown with China is now looking doubtful.
After scoring 24 goals in three games during the past week, Taiwan was unable to get past a stoic South Korean defense and lost 1-0.
Around 8,000 fans turned up at Chungshan Stadium in Taipei for the game and the crowd went home bitterly disappointed.
North Korea, meanwhile, joined China in the last four of the AFC Women's Championship with a 1-0 win against Japan.
Despite losing the evenly contested and engrossing battle between two of the rising forces in the Asian women's game by a scrappy 79th minute Lee Ji-eun goal, Taiwan remains top of the group A standings, ahead of South Korea on goal difference.
The Koreans, however, still have a game in hand and unless Thailand defeats them tomorrow at Taipei Municipality Stadium, An Jong-goan's side will go through to the semifinals as group winners.
Taiwan could edge through to the semifinals for a return match against South Korea, if they are the best runners-up.
This door could be closed, however, if Japan is the better runner-up after tomorrow's games.
"We are all obviously very happy to have won today, particularly as it is the first time in ten years that we have beaten them [Taiwan]," An said after the game.
"When we arrived here for the tournament our preparations had really been for this match.
"I think that both teams' technical and fitness levels are about even and we were a bit lucky with our goal," An said.
Taiwan's assistant coach, in contrast, tried to put a positive spin on the outcome. "Of course we are all very, very sad at the moment but we did our best throughout," Lu Kuei-hua (
"I think it was a 50/50 game but we didn't take our chances and after we lost the goal so late in the game we lost our confidence," said Lu.
If South Korea wins its final game against Thailand it will join defending champions China, North Korea and the best runner-up.
North Korea 1, Japan 0
North Korea managed to overcome Japan 1-0 in a hard-fought tactical battle at the Taipei Municipality Stadium yesterday.
Japan restricted the free-scoring Koreans -- who had scored an outrageous 47 times in their previous three matches -- to just one goal.
But that is all it took to decide the tie, as Ri Kum-suk's 14th of the tournament sent North Korea through to the semifinals as group B winners.
Shinobu Ikeda's side may take the fourth and final spot as the runners-up with the best record, assuming it overcomes Vietnam in tomorrow's game.
If Japan loses against this year's South East Asian Games silver medalists then Taiwan could still make the last four.
Vietnam 8, Singapore 0
Vietnam was by far the better team in an 8-0 victory over the "Lionesses" yesterday at Taipei Municipality Stadium.
Vietnam's match against Japan now takes on an extra significance for Taiwan, which could be eliminated from the competition if Japan wins tomorrow. Japan currently has a better goal difference.
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