A moment of magic from teenager Liu Yu-chiao ensured that the Taiwanese women’s team booked their spot in the 2026 AFC Womens Finals after outlasting hosts Indonesia in the city of Tangerang.

Although the Mulan were favoured to qualify for the finals, they still needed to beat Indonesia to be completely sure. As was the case in their previous game, the weather made this more difficult than it needed to be, and it took a lot of hard work before Taiwan eventually pulled away from their opponents.

Indeed, playing in-front of their own fans, Indonesia came out with a point to prove and probably should have got the opening goal. As her team surged forward on the counter attack, Isa Warps’ through-ball was perfectly placed for Rosdilah Nurrohmah to run on to. The winger’s shot was on target but the waterlogged field slowed the ball down, giving Teng Pei-lin enough time to make a goal line clearance. Indonesia felt the ball had crossed the line (it probably did) and were furious when the effort was waved off. With VAR not being used, Taiwan had gotten lucky.

A few minutes later, things got even better for the Mulan when red-hot striker Su Yu-hsuan scored for the third time in as many games. Bringing the ball out from the back, the long-ball from Teng was excellent but there was still work to be done. With the Indonesian defense closing in, Su took a touch to steady herself before cooly nutmegging the keeper from a tight angle and putting Taiwan ahead.

Having been denied a goal and then watched as Taiwan took the lead soon after, Indonesia were furious and the game turned nasty.

With time running down in the first half, Indonesia became irate about a challenge from Teng on Nurrohmah– although replays later showed that the latter had exaggerated the contact. Chen Yu-chin was also lucky that she was not booked after she kicked out at an Indonesian player. Soon after, Warps appeared to aim a chest-high kick at Hsu Yi-yun and if contact had been made, it would have been an automatic red card. Nurrohmah then got revenge on Teng by cynically chopping her down right near the sideline.

Taiwan knew they had to play it safe in the second half. But instead, they allowed Indonesia to equalize thanks to a moment of madness from Wang Yu-ting. Having repelled a Taiwan corner, Indonesia had sent an opportunistic long ball down the field. Sensing it would go over the heads of her defenders, Wang charged almost forty yards off her line, only to mistime her kick and let the ball go past her. As a result, Helsya Maeisyaroh had all the time in the world to calmly slot the ball into an empty net and tie the game up.

At that point, Taiwan could have folded amid the intensity of Indonesia’s players and fans. But instead, the Mulan steadied themselves and kept on coming. With sixty-three minutes played, Chen forced an excellent save from Iris de Rouw and soon after, Su Sin-yun should have scored but instead sent her header wide after an excellent cross from Hsu.

But with time starting to run out, Taiwan found a moment of inspiration from one of their youngest players. On as a substitute, Liu’s fresh legs had already steadied the midfield but when she picked the ball up about thirty-yards from the Indonesia goal, the opposing side did not think she would shoot from that far out. Instead, having sat deep to prevent any through-balls to Taiwan’s strikers, Indonesia gave Liu plenty of time to steady herself before uncorking an incredible swerving effort that flew past de Rouw.

Taiwan were back in front and the stadium had gone from raucous to deathly silent. Indonesia had completely lost their momentum and now seemed unsure of how to respond.

With one team knowing they needed to defend at all costs and the other not being sure how to attack, everything drifted into irrelevance. Taiwan wasted as much time as possible whilst Indonesia aimlessly tried to conjure up a goal out of nowhere. The referee and her sideline officials could be heard getting exasperated with the Indonesians, who themselves were getting exasperated with the Taiwanese gamesmanship.

At the full-time whistle, Taiwan’s players erupted into celebrations, dousing their coach with water and high-fiving anyone nearby. AFC Finals qualification had been major target for both the coaching staff and the CTFA, and with that box ticked, everyone could now breathe a little more easily.

‘We deserved to win [the game] remarked manager Chan Hiu Ming in the aftermath of the victory. ‘We’ve been spending more than two years to prepare for this [qualification tournament] and I’m very proud of my players’.

By contrast, many of the Indonesian players were despondent, most notably Sheva Imut, who was sobbing so hard that her teammates had to hold her upright. For the hosts, this was a blown opportunity to qualify for the AFC Finals and they knew it.

Taiwan, obviously, will not care. Having endured a long winter of defeats in Australia and then in Europe, the Mulan have now won five games in-a-row and will move onto the Finals next summer with real confidence and momentum.