Qualifying as the third in the group, defeating the Melbourne City Women s Football Team in Australia! Why did Wuhan Women s Football Team win the AFC Champions League

Qualified as the third in the group and finally defeated the Melbourne City Women's Football Team in Australia... Recently, Wuhan Chegujiang Women's Football Team won the first Asian Football Federation Women's Football Club Champions League (hereinafter referred to as "Women's AFC Champions League"). Afterwards, Wang Shuang, Wu Haiyan and Yao Wei set off from Wuhan and met with the Chinese women's football team that was training in the United States.

On May 31 local time, the Chinese women's football team will hold a warm-up match with the US women's football team in Minneapolis. Three internationals in Wuhan women's football team will work with their teammates to explore the way forward for the Chinese women's football team who are striving to climb the hill.

First starts and grows in the soil of sports and education integration

The Women's Football AFC is the highest-level club event in Asian women's football sponsored by the AFC. After missing the Paris Olympics, the Chinese women's football team fell into a low point. Now, Wuhan Women's Football Team has won the highest honor of the Asian Women's Football Club, giving fans new hope.

For this day, Wuhan Women's Football Team has been going through 26 years.

In September 1999, Jianghan University began to form a women's football team, and the integration of sports and education became the distinctive label of the team. Two years later, Wuhan Jiangda Women's Football Club was officially established and began to participate in the National Women's Football League the following year.

Although the Jiangda Women's Football Team, based on campus, did not have outstanding achievements in the Chinese women's football world at that time, the integration of sports and education provided a good environment for players' growth. In 2006, 18-year-old Yue Min put on the national team's jersey with her outstanding performance, becoming the first player selected for the Chinese women's football team after the establishment of the Jiangda Women's Football Team.

In 2007, the Women's World Cup was held in China. It was this year that 12-year-old Wang Shuang was selected for the national youth team, and 10-year-old Yao Wei stepped onto the World Cup as a small flag bearer. Eight years later, in 2015, the fully restructured Chinese Women's Football League officially launched the Women's Super League and Women's A graded competition system, and Wang Shuang and his teammates had a new stage to gallop.

At that time, the Wuhan Municipal Sports Bureau took the lead in reorganizing the Wuhan Jiangda Women's Football Club. Wuhan Football Management Center, Wuhan Sports Center Development Co., Ltd. and Jianghan University formed the "Iron Triangle", marking the official start of the professionalization of Wuhan women's football.

In the 2018 season, Wuhan Women's Football Team, which was promoted to the Women's Super League, officially participated in the top league and won the championship in the 2020 season. Since then, Wuhan Women's Football Team not only achieved five consecutive league championships, but also won the FA Cup and the National Championships. This is an era that belongs to them.

Respond to overcome personnel difficulties and strengthen the training of young players

Just like the twists and turns in the AFC final, Wuhan Women's Football Team's AFC journey was quite bumpy.

The team 1 win and 2 losses in the group stage, and advanced to the quarterfinals with the qualification of third place in the group; in the quarter-finals, it was difficult to eliminate the Japanese Urawa Red Diamonds by relying on goalkeeper Chen Chen to save two consecutive penalty kicks.

In the past two years, Wuhan women's football team has changed a lot, and many outstanding players have left the team due to salary structure and other reasons. The Women's Super League has finished 6 rounds this season, and the Wuhan Women's Football Team, which has one less game, is only ranked in the middle. Wuhan Women's Football Head Coach Chang Weiwei said: "When I took over in April 2021, the team was in its heyday, with 8 internationals in the team. Now, we only have 3 active internationals." Although we are in a difficult situation, there are new hopes. The team has promoted several young players from the youth team to strengthen the training of young players.

Middleball player Jiang Chenjing, who started in the AFC Champions League final, won the 2021 Women's Super League championship with the team at the age of 17 and has now become the main force of the team. Similar to Jiang Chenjing, there are a group of young women's football players such as Deng Mengye, Zhao Jingyi, and Wang Qianqian, who are the future of the team.

Looking back on the road to winning the championship, Chang Weiwei believes that passing through Urawa Red Diamond Women's Football Team is a turning point in the team's AFC Champions League process. "This victory played a key role in enhancing the morale of the whole team," said Chang Wei Wei.

The Wuhan Women's Football Team received enthusiastic support from fans in the semi-finals and finals of the AFC Champions League. More than 18,000 spectators came to the finals, a number that is rare for women's football events that have long lacked external attention. The cheers of fans made Chen Chen unforgettable: "I am not fighting alone, the fans have given me endless strength."

Catch up and face the gap, the women's football team has a long way to go

Winning the AFC Champions League, winning the Wuhan Women's Football Team's right to participate in the 2026 FIFA Women's Football Championship Cup. "This championship is of great significance to our club. This final is for us to fight for a future for ourselves, for the club, and for the Chinese women's football team." Wang Shuang said.

According to the competition system, if Wuhan Women's Football Team wants to advance to the main stage of the competition, it will also need to defeat the club champion teams from Oceania and Africa in succession. At the club level, the AFC still cannot compete with UEFA, South American Football Federation, Central and North American and Caribbean Football Federation.

In the early morning of May 25, the English Arsenal Women's Football Team defeated the Spanish strong Barcelona Women's Football Team 1-0 in Lisbon, Portugal, and a wonderful showdown showed the world's top level of women's football. In response, Wang Shuang said: "Compared with Europe, which has a deep professional accumulation, Asia has a long way to go to the development of women's football clubs."

does not have much time to catch up.

The first Women's World Club World Cup will be unveiled in 2028, forming a global women's football club event structure - the grassroots are club leagues organized by various member associations, the middle level is intercontinental club events such as the Champions League and the AFC Champions League, and the top level is composed of the Club World Cup and the Champions League. The world women's football team will upgrade from the single-core driver of the national team to the "national team + club" dual-wheel drive.

Due to failure to obtain tickets to the Paris Olympics, the Chinese women's football team did not have the opportunity to participate in the world-class competition in the two years 2024-2025. Now, Wuhan Women's Football Team's breakthrough at the club level has allowed the team to show the strength of the Chinese women's football team on the Asian stage and also gained a rare opportunity to fight against world-class teams.

The gap is not small, Chang Weiwei has a clear understanding: "The team still needs to work hard, and Chinese women's football must continue to develop forward.. ”

For Wuhan Women's Football Team, the Asian championship is a thing of the past, and the ladder to the world stage is now.