Busan, Dec 14 (IANS): Mana Iwabuchi scored a hat-trick as the Japanese women's team beat China 3-0 in the second round of the women's competition of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship here on Saturday.

Japan went ahead at the 8th minute when three of their players combined well to break China's defence of five players and forward Iwabuchi coolly put the ball behind charging Chinese goalkeeper Peng Shimeng, reports Xinhua news agency.

Iwabuchi fired again at the 43rd minute as she collected a through ball from teammate Yui Hasegawa to lob it into the net.

The 26-year-old striker completed her hat-trick at the 54th minute when she easily tapped in a rebounded ball from Peng who tried to intercept a cross.

China, still searching for ways to deal with their scoring woes following this year's World Cup, created their best chance at the 70th minute when Tang Jiali had only Japanese goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita to beat. But the Chinese striker shot the ball wide.

Chinese head coach Jia Xiuquan had said he would try to improve his players scoring ability after they scored only one goal over four matches at this year's World Cup in France.

In their first match of the EAFF E-1 Football Championship on Tuesday, China failed to impress in attack in a goalless draw with South Korea.