The duo is joined by Pernille Harder of Denmark, Lindsey Horan of the United States and Ada Hegerberg, Kumagai's Olympique Lyonnais teammate, who won the first ever Women's Ballon d'Or in 2018.

The publicly-voted award, which will be announced on May 22, has never been won by an Asian player since its inception in 2015, and this year's edition is the first time two Asian players have reached the top five.

Cho's decisive penalty came following a 1-1 draw with Reading in the semi-final, with the midfielder giving West Ham a historic 4-3 win in the shootout, and setting up a showdown with Manchester City in next month's final at Wembley Stadium.

With the two sides - both mid-table in the FA Women's Super League - looking for a first ever appearance in the final, Reading took the lead through Rachel Furness four minutes into the second half, but West Ham levelled eight minutes later through Swiss forward Alisha Lehmann.

GERMANY 2-2 JAPAN

Japan led twice, but ultimately had to share the spoils with Germany in an entertaining 2-2 draw at Paderborn's Benteler Arena.

Yui Hasegawa and Kumi Yokoyama gave Japan leads in either half, but they gave them both up, as Svenja Huth's equaliser 18 minutes from time denied Asako Takakura's side a confidence-boosting win two months before the World Cup.

The win, sealed by a lone Wang Shanshan goal shortly before half-time, follows January's successful Four Nations Tournament campaign in Meizhou as Jia Xiuquan's side continue their build up to the FIFA Women's World Cup France 2019 in June.

Playing a home friendly for the first time since 2015, Korea Republic drew an unprecedented home crowd of 15,839, but couldn't hold on for a positive result after recovering from two goals behind to level the tie at 2-2 with less than 20 minutes remaining.

The record crowd was a vast improvement on the attendances for the two-game friendly series played against Russia in the build-up to the last FIFA Women's World Cup, which drew galleries of 3,177 in Incheon and 6,899 in Daejon in 2015.

FRANCE 3-1 JAPAN

Japan suffered a setback against FIFA Women's World Cup hosts France, falling to a 3-1 defeat at Stade de l'Abbé-Deschamps in Auxerre.

The loss is the second in a row for the Nadeshiko, who suffered a 3-0 defeat to France 2019 group stage rivals England in their previous match last month.

The top six remained unchanged, with Australia as Asia's best-ranked team after maintaining their position at sixth in the world. Ante Milicic's squad, are in Group C alongside Italy, Brazil and Jamaica for France 2019.

Japan, who are in Group D with England, Scotland and Argentina, moved up a notch to seventh, while DPR Korea, who will not play in France maintained at 11th in the world.