After intense and dramatic matches, the quarter-finals of the 2023 Asian Cup have officially determined the 4 excellent teams participating. Qatar became the 4th team to play in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Asian Cup after Australia, Tajikistan and Jordan.
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| Lineups of Qatar and Palestine at the 2023 Asian Cup. (Source: AFP) |
Hosts Qatar are the latest to book their place in the quarter-finals after a comeback to win 2-1 against Palestine.
Hasan Al Haydos and Akram Afif took turns scoring to give the defending champions victory after Palestine had taken the lead through Oday Dabbagh.
This is also the second consecutive Asian Cup that Qatar has reached the round of 8 best teams on the continent.
Coach Tintin Marquez's team will continue their journey with a match against the winner of the match between Uzbekistan and Thailand (taking place at 6:30 p.m. on January 30).
Uzbekistan and Thailand are both considered "easy" opponents for Qatar on their journey to defend their throne.
Before Qatar, Jordan also advanced to the quarter-finals with a dramatic 3-2 victory over Iraq at Khalifa International Stadium.
Jordan surprised their highly rated opponents when they broke the balance thanks to Yazan Al-Naimat's goal in the 45+1 minute.
However, Iraq showed their mettle by scoring two goals in a few minutes from Suad Natiq and Aymen Hussein.
But Iraq's joy did not last long when the referee suddenly gave Aymen Hussein a second yellow card after the celebration, meaning they were left with only 10 players on the field.
Playing with one less man, Iraq was under great pressure from their opponents at the end of the match and the unexpected happened. Jordan scored two consecutive goals in the 90+5 and 90+7 minutes by Yazan Al-Arab and Nizar Mahmoud Al-Rashdan to win dramatically 3-2.
This result forced Iraq to say goodbye to the tournament where they were highly rated after an unbeaten performance in the group stage.
The Iraqi team's elimination made coach Jesus Casas extremely angry, saying that referee Alireza Faghani was the one who caused his team's defeat.
"The referee's decision to send off a player completely changed the game," coach Jesus Casas said at a press conference after the match. "In a big tournament like the Asian Cup, a player cannot be sent off just for celebrating. The Jordan players celebrated similarly and the referee did nothing, did not punish them. It was a strange thing."
As for the Jordan team, this dramatic victory has brought them straight to the quarterfinals and will face Tajikistan, the team that is considered a phenomenon at the 2023 Asian Cup.
The rookie team Tajikistan created a big surprise in the round of 16 when they excellently held the UAE to a draw in 120 minutes of play before winning 5-3 in a lucky penalty shootout.
A shocking victory over the UAE helped the Tajikistan team make a miracle by reaching the quarter-finals in their first participation.
Now, the world's 106th-ranked team is heading into the match against Jordan determined to continue writing their fairy tale in Qatar.
The fourth team to make it to the quarter-finals is Australia . Coach Graham Arnold's team qualified for the round of 8 after an easy 4-0 victory over Indonesia.
In that match, Martin Boyle, Craig Goodwin and Harry Souttar were on target for Australia after they opened the scoring through an Elkan Baggott own goal.
The quarter-final match is expected to be much more "difficult" for Australia as they will have to face the winner of the match between two big teams, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
The match between Saudi Arabia and South Korea is considered the highlight of the round of 16. The match will take place at 11pm today (January 30) at Education City Stadium.
This is also considered an "early final" match worth waiting for when the two teams Korea and Saudi Arabia are both strong candidates for the championship title at the 2023 Asian Cup.
( according to Vietnam+ )
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