The home side looked to put Auckland under pressure early on, Wang Shuang picking out Yao Wei in the box but the Wuhan Jiangda captain hesitated with her decision.

Wuhan Jiangda then forced Hannah Mitchell into a diving save to her left in the sixth minute from a Song Duan curler before the ensuing corner kick saw Wu Haiyan’s lob cleared off the goal line by an alert Jess Philpot.

After the early dominance and with the heat playing a part, Wuhan Jiangda had to ease their foot off the pedal with Auckland able to test Chen Chen with a Dani Canham effort just inside the box which the Chinese custodian tipped over the bar.

Chang Weiwei’s side reasserted their control shortly after and were close to the opener in the 33rd minute but Mitchell pulled off a double save to stop Ma Jun’s header before denying Wu Haiyan on the follow-up.

Wuhan Jiangda picked up from where they left off after the interval, but Qin Manman smashed a half-volley three minutes into the second half from outside the box which was palmed away by Mitchell.

The China PR side thought they had broken the deadlock in the 74th minute after Mitchell flapped at a raking Song Duan pass and Wang Shuang was able to curl home into an empty goalmouth, but the goal was ruled out for offside after a VAR check.

Wuhan Jiangda, however, kept going and eventually found the winner in the 88th minute after Kim Hye-ri’s smart header set substitute Jiang free in the box to fire home past Mitchell to take her side through to the next stage.

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