Ho Chi Minh City, 15 January 2026 – Ho Chi Minh City Women’s FC will travel to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to face host club Naegohyang FC in the quarter-finals of the 2025–26 AFC Women’s Champions League.
On the afternoon of January 15, the Asian Football Confederation conducted the draw for the quarter-final stage. The draw paired Ho Chi Minh City Women with Naegohyang FC, with the tie to be played as a single match, scheduled for March 28 or 29.
Under AFC regulations, teams seeded No.1 are entitled to host quarter-final matches. Due to an inferior goal difference compared to Naegohyang FC in the group stage, Ho Chi Minh City Women were placed in Pot 2 and will therefore play away from home. This means head coach Doan Thi Kim Chi’s side will face a challenging trip in terms of conditions and home pressure, but it also presents an opportunity for the Vietnamese representatives to further demonstrate their resilience on the continental stage.
Earlier, Ho Chi Minh City Women finished runners-up in Group A of the competition to secure a place among the top eight teams in Asia. This is a commendable achievement, continuing the momentum built last season when the club reached the semi-finals at continental level.
Naegohyang FC, meanwhile, have shown impressive form since the preliminary rounds. The DPR Korea club scored 23 goals against Master FC (Laos), RTC FC (Bhutan) and Kaohsiung Attackers (Chinese Taipei) to qualify for the group stage. They then finished second in Group C, highlighted by a 3-0 victory over ISPE WFC (Myanmar), to advance to the quarter-finals. Notably, Naegohyang FC also recorded a 3-0 win over Suwon FC of South Korea earlier in the tournament.
The knockout stage of the AFC Women’s Club Championship 2025–26 features eight of Asia’s strongest teams, including defending champions Wuhan Jiangda (China) and runners-up Melbourne City FC (Australia). Other quarter-finalists include Suwon FC (South Korea), Stallion Laguna FC (Philippines), PFC Nasaf (Uzbekistan) and Naegohyang FC, underlining the growing competitiveness of women’s football across the continent.
The four quarter-final winners will progress to the semi-finals, which will be played in a centralized format leading up to the final, scheduled from May 20 to 23 to determine the champions.
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