{"id":654591,"date":"2026-10-23T06:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654591\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T06:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T06:32:11","slug":"samoa-battle-hard-but-china-pr-too-strong-at-fifa-u-17-womens-world-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/654591\/","title":{"rendered":"Samoa battle hard but China PR too strong at FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samoa have produced a much-improved performance at the FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup, despite losing 7-0 to China PR in Morocco.<\/p>\n

The Oceania representatives showed greater resilience than in their opening Group E match, when they suffered a 17-0 defeat to the United States.<\/p>\n

However, China PR proved too strong, scoring four goals before half-time and adding three more after the interval.<\/p>\n

Fang Zhenzhu opened the scoring with a sixth-minute penalty before Xu Yue struck twice in four minutes, finding the net in the 25th and 29th minutes.<\/p>\n

Main photo: China PR\u2019s Fang Zhenzhu. Photo credit: FIFA.<\/p>\n

Cheng Wandi extended China\u2019s lead to 4-0 in the 39th minute, leaving Samoa facing another difficult second half.<\/p>\n

Cheng converted another penalty in the 57th minute before Liu Yuxi scored in the 69th minute.<\/p>\n

Yang Lan completed the scoring in the 76th minute.<\/p>\n

Despite the result, Samoa coach Juan Chang Urrea was encouraged by his team\u2019s improvement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was never going to be an easy task against China PR \u2014 we knew it was going to be a tough one.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I do think that we did improve and we added another layer for us. We\u2019re just going to continue to learn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are tough games \u2014 we\u2019re talking about the top teams in the world; it\u2019s a great learning opportunity for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

China PR goalscorer Cheng Wandi was pleased with her contribution and looked ahead to her team\u2019s next challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really happy for the two goals I got today, but more importantly, I think I still need to improve and do better in the next game against the USA.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy that we\u2019ve already gotten to the knockout stage of this tournament, so we will do our best and I think we need to go further.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really expecting a tough game, but I\u2019m excited about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Samoa will complete their Group E programme against Kenya on Monday October 26, 2026 (NZT), seeking their first goal of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, New Zealand play their final group game on Saturday morning (NZT) when they face Argentina.<\/p>\n

Results<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Games played on Friday October 23, 2026 (NZT)<\/p>\n

United States 6 (Maddie DiMaria 5\u2032, 22\u2032, 35\u2032 pen, 45+2\u2032 pen, Loradana Paletta 48\u2032, Gianna Hanf 90+3\u2032)
Kenya 1 (Lindey Atieno 90+5\u2032)<\/p>\n

China PR 7 (Fang Zhenzhu 6\u2032 pen, Xu Yue 25\u2032, 29\u2032, Cheng Wandi 39\u2032, 57\u2032 pen, Liu Xuxi 69\u2032, Yang Lan 76\u2032)
Samoa 0<\/p>\n

FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup Group E<\/p>\n

Team
\nP
\nW
\nD
\nL
\nGF
\nGA
\nGD
\nPts<\/p>\n

United States
\n2
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n23
\n1
\n22
\n6<\/p>\n

China PR
\n2
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n10
\n0
\n10
\n6<\/p>\n

Kenya
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n0
\n9
\n-8
\n0<\/p>\n

Samoa
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n0
\n24
\n-24
\n0<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Game to be played on Saturday October 24, 2026 (NZT)<\/p>\n

Group A<\/p>\n

New Zealand v Germany
Mohammed VI Football Academy (Pitch 3), Sal\u00e9, Morocco, 7am (NZT)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup Group A<\/p>\n

Team
\nP
\nW
\nD
\nL
\nGF
\nGA
\nGD
\nPts<\/p>\n

Germany
\n2
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n6
\n3
\n3
\n6<\/p>\n

Morocco
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n1
\n6
\n4
\n2
\n3<\/p>\n

Argentina
\n2
\n1
\n0
\n1
\n3
\n2
\n1
\n3<\/p>\n

New Zealand
\n2
\n0
\n0
\n2
\n0
\n6
\n-6
\n0<\/p>\n

This story was first published on October 23, 2026.<\/p>\n

More football stories<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samoa have produced a much-improved performance at the FIFA U-17 Women\u2019s World Cup, despite losing 7-0 to China…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":654592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[294440,85,46,105],"class_list":["post-654591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-fifa-u-17-womens-world-cup","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/654592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}