Action from the Korea Republic-Australia match. AFC photo by Stanley Chou

KUALA LUMPUR: Korea Republic went on a three-goal burst early in the second half to defeat Australia 3-1 in Group A and revive their hopes for glory in the AFC U-16 Women’s Championship on Saturday. The Koreans, who lost 3-1 to China in their opening match at MPPJ Stadium on Thursday, are now favourites to go through to the semi-finals. But Australia still have a chance to advance if they can defeat China in their last group game on Monday by three clear goals. Korean coach KimYong-ho was happy with his team’s performance after their defeat to China on Thursday, when they suffered a poor first half. “All the strategies that we talked about before the match worked out today,” said Kim. “We learned from our loss to China and played much better today. “I spoke to all the players and we knew what we had to do. They did their best and I’m pleased with how they reacted.” Australian coach Michael Mulvey was also proud of his players, despite their defeat. “My players did very well, it was just a few pieces of naïve defending that caused our loss,” he said. “Korea are a very strong team, we saw them in January and knew they would be tough. “We had a few chances to score and maybe if we had the rub of the green things would be a bit different. But the girls put in their best and I’m happy to have this team play for me and Australia.” Korea needed to push for victory from the start and that is exactly what they did, laying siege to the Australian defence right from the opening whistle. Australian goalkeeper Casey Dumot pulled off some excellent saves, including a one-on-one effort from Kim Dasom and another from Lee Hyun-young. The Aussies struggled to get out of their own half until late in the first period when they had two good chances to score. First, Sophie Hogben had her shot saved by Korean goalkeeper Jung Bo-ram in the 38th minute and, three minutes later, Jenna Kingsley also came close. Two minutes from the break, Australia were awarded a free kick inside the Korea Republic box after Jung handled a back pass. However, Kyah Simon blasted over. Australia finished the first half stronger, but Korea’s overall superiority showed just five minutes into the second half. Park Hee-young burst through on her own, out-paced two Australian defenders and beautifully placed it past Dumont. The Australians hardly had time to recover from that blow before conceding a second goal two minutes later, with Kim Jungin getting on the scorecard. Korea Republic took a stranglehold on the match after 58 minutes when Lee Hyun-young beat the Australian defence to a through-pass and blasted the ball over Dumont and into the net. Australians are famous for their never-say-die spirit in any sport and, indeed, they quickly pulled goal back. Simon managed to get the slightest of touches to head a corner past Jung to make the score 3-1 in Korea’s favour after 60 minutes. However, the Koreans enjoyed a comfortable two-goal lead and never looked like surrendering the match. The final match of the group is on Monday when the Australians face China.