KUALA LUMPUR: China PR reached the final of the AFC Under-19 Women's Championship with a tense 5-3 penalty shootout victory over Japan in the semi-finals at Kuala Lumpur Cheras Stadium on Saturday.

Ma Xiaoxu struck the winning penalty for China after both teams finished 1-1 after 90 minutes and 30 minutes of extra time produced no goals.

It was a heart-breaking defeat for Japan, who finished stronger than the Chinese after 120 gruelling minutes but were let down by poor finishing.

Nayuha Toyoda missed Japan's fourth kick after Mizuho Sakaguchi, Rumi Utsugi and Yuki Nagasato converted their spot-kicks.

China's penalties were scored by Zhuang Ran, Zhang Wei, Yuan Fan, Zi Jingjing and Ma.

China took the lead on 15 minutes when Zi found herself unmarked six yards out and guided the ball past Japan goalkeeper Shiori Kobayashi.

Japan, who were until then on the back foot, finally found their attacking rhythm and equalised within three minutes.

Aya Sameshima hit a soft shot from eight yards and Chinese goalkeeper Zhang Yanru was moving the wrong way and was unable to stop the ball.

China coach Shang Ruiha felt his players were fortunate to go through after withstanding furious Japanese pressure during the second half and extra time.

"We knew we were in for a tough match because Japan had beaten both South Korea and North Korea in their group matches," said Shang.

"We had a good first half but after that, we struggled to match Japan's fitness. We were lucky in the penalty shootout but overall it is a fair result."

Japanese coach Morinao Imaizumi must now lift his players for their third-place play-off match, with the winners joining the finalists in August's World Championship in Russia.

"I don't think it will be difficult to recover from this, I believe in my players," said Imaizumi.

"The match should not really have gone to penalty kicks because we were in control. But China are a very strong team and we have a lot of respect for them."

Japan went unbeaten in Group A while China finished second to Australia in Group B.