Jordan players celebrate victory to Son Heung-min's disappointment
Hosting the 2023 Asian Cup for a record third time, host nation Qatar welcomed an unprecedented 23 visiting teams to Asia's biggest football festival, just two years after they successfully hosted the 2022 World Cup.
After 50 exciting matches, with a total of 128 goals (an average of 2.56 goals/match), the 2023 Asian Cup will reach its peak with a match between the two best teams that have surpassed 22 other names to reach the final, Jordan and Qatar.
After debuting in 2004 and participating for the 5th time, the Jordan team is writing an extraordinary fairy tale when defeating a series of names such as Malaysia, Iraq, Tajikistan, and South Korea to participate in the final match for the first time.
Jordan players are writing an extraordinary fairy tale at the 2023 Asian Cup
If they continue to win the final, coach Hussein Ammouta and his team will write history, becoming the 10th champions of the Asian Cup after Japan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, South Korea, Israel, Kuwait, Australia, Iraq and Qatar.
An extraordinary result for the team that stopped at the 2019 Asian Cup after losing in the penalty shootout against... the Vietnamese team and whose best achievement was reaching the quarter-finals at the Asian championships in 2004 and 2011.
But looking back at how they drew 2-2 before beating South Korea 2-0, a place in the final was well deserved for Jordan, with a strong defense that limited Son Heung-min and his teammates to just seven shots in the entire semi-final.
Akram Afif scores to help Qatar overcome Iran in the semi-finals
To open a new page in history, the Jordan team will have to go against… history, as their opponent in the final match is the Qatar team, the defending champion after winning the 2019 Asian Cup.
In the semi-final, Qatar and Iran played out an exciting chase with a total of five goals, ending with a 3-2 victory for the home team.
If they win the final match, which will take place at 10 p.m. Vietnam time on February 10 (live on VTV5 and FPT Play) , the Qatar team will rise to the top 4 in Asia, equal to South Korea with 2 championships and only behind Iran, Saudi Arabia (3 championships) or Japan (4 championships).
Qatar is dreaming of winning the Asian Cup for the second consecutive time.
Not only possessing talented and ambitious players like Akram Afif (5 goals) and Almoez Ali (2 goals) who scored in the semi-final, the Qatar team also has a huge advantage in the support of a large home crowd who want their beloved team to win the Asian Cup for the second consecutive time.
Certainly, the encounter between Qatar's unpredictable attacking style and Jordan's strong defense will be extremely attractive, worthy of being the top performance to close the emotional and surprising 2023 Asian Cup.
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