The Southeast Asians suffered three successive defeats to crash out in the group stage of the inaugural continental championship in Malaysia but, three years on, a sensational run of wins has taken them all the way to the final four.

Speaking the-AFC.com after her side’s absorbing 2-1 quarter-final win over Indonesia, the 24-year-old revealed her delight.

“This is more than I expected,” she said.

“I didn’t expect to get this far in the competition, but now that we have we’ll try to go even further.”

Nguyen Thi Hue scored the precious late goal which decided the contest and gave Vietnam their fourth consecutive win in a tournament where they failed to win a match three years ago.

It was a heartbreaking end for Indonesia, who trailed at half-time before equalising early in the second half through Febriana, as their maiden continental campaign finished with a narrow defeat.

In a battle of two undefeated sides, Indonesia looked to continue their dream AFC Women’s Futsal Championship debut by reaching the semi-finals at their first attempt, while Vietnam were hopeful of repeating last year’s 2-1 SEA Games win against their regional rivals.

Goals to Tian Jiao and Zhang Yue had the East Asians 2-1 ahead on the verge of half-time, but a Fereshteh Karimi-led Iran took the lead in the first minute of the second half and closed the game out with a late Sara Shirbeigi goal.

Shahrzad Mozafar’s charges will now meet Vietnam in tomorrow’s semi-finals, while China’s promising tournament ends at the quarter-final stage.

Iran had piled up 23 goals in their previous two matches, and in the opening moments they picked up from where they had left off in the group stage as Karimi and Shierbegi both went close.

Karimi gave the reigning champions an early lead when she fired home from a free-kick in the second minute, but China took just a minute to respond, as Tian Jiao met Zeng Qingqing’s inch perfect cross to fire home a wonderful header.

In a lively contest at the Huamark Indoor Stadium, both sides began brightly as they were evenly matched  in terms of possession and attempts on goal.

Uzbekistan welcomed back Laylo Tilovova as their custodian after she missed the group stage match against Islamic Republic of Iran, and she quickly proved her worth by pulling off several superb saves against Anna Amishiro and Ryo Egawa in the opening minutes.

Nilufar Kudratova came closest to opening the scoring for the Central Asians in the 14th minute when she received a pass to set up a one-on-one against Japanese goalkeeper Ayaka Yamamoto just outside the box, who reacted swiftly to block the shot with her torso.

Japan’s persistence paid off from a set-piece a minute later, when Mio Fujita’s kick-in found Amishiro unmarked, who dribbled past the Uzbek defence before hitting home with a right foot shot to break the deadlock.