2-1!3-2! Asian football has changed, and the dark horse has risen strongly, beating Japan to qualify and guarantee the top 4
The group stage of the 2024 Asian Cup has reached its final stage, and 16 teams that have advanced to the knockout stage have also been born. Among these 16 teams, there is a team whose performance has surprised countless fans, not only beating the Japanese team to win the first place in the group, but also has a high probability of reaching the semi-finals of this Asian Cup!
Fans who have watched the Asian Cup should know that this "dark horse" is the Iraqi team from West Asia. In the first round of the group stage, facing the weakest team in the group, Indonesia, the Iraqi team won 3-1 without any suspense and got off to a good start. However, in the second round, the Iraqis faced a tough battle against Japan, the top favourites to win the Asian Cup. Before this game, the Japanese team has won 11 consecutive victories in all competitions, and many fans believe that the Japanese team will win the championship of this Asian Cup with an undefeated record!
However, it turns out that in the world of football, anything can happen. Against an unbeatable Japanese team, Iraq scored twice in the first half to take an incredible 2-0 lead. In the rematch, the Iraqi team withstood the Japanese team's indiscriminate bombardment with a tenacious defense, and it was not until injury time that they were scored by the opponent from a corner kick opportunity. In the end, the Iraqi team defeated the Japanese team 2-1, and with the advantage of winning and losing, they locked the first place in Group D one round in advance!
With Iraq already topping the group ahead of schedule and Vietnam already out of the tournament, the final round of matches has become inconsequential for both sides, and more about honour. Therefore, in this game, the Iraqi team rotated a number of key players, and the Vietnamese team did their best to get their first points in this Asian Cup. In the first half of the game, the Vietnamese team, which played as the main player, slightly grasped the initiative of the game, and in the 18th minute, the Iraqi team scored an own goal, but the referee determined that the Vietnamese player Qu Van Kang had interfered with the defenders in the offside position, and the goal was cancelled.
However, in the 42nd minute, the Vietnamese team still took the lead to break the deadlock in the game. Qu Van Kang took a free kick and found his team-mate in the penalty area, and the follow-up Bui Hoang Viet Anh fired a goal-scoring shot into the net to give Vietnam a 1-0 lead. However, the excitement of the Vietnamese lasted only seven minutes, and in stoppage time of the first half, Qu Van Kang, who assisted his team-mate's goal, was sent off for a second yellow card, and the Vietnamese team had to face the disadvantage of playing one less. Yibian fought again, and the Iraqi team, which was leading in numbers, was replaced by a number of main players one after another, and the game completely fell into their control!
In the 47th minute, Iraq's attacker Jassim assisted a teammate's header from a corner kick to equalize the score at the start of the second half. In the 73rd minute, it was Jassim's pass again, this time he accurately found Iraq's top scorer Hussein, who jumped high and put the ball into the net, 2-1! The Iraqi team successfully completed the overtake! But the Vietnamese team did not give up, and in the first minute of injury time, Vietnamese Messi Nguyen Quang Hai received a header from his teammates and volleyed into the far corner of the goal at a small angle, helping the Vietnamese team to make the score 2-2!
Just when everyone thought that the game would end in a draw, the situation on the field changed again. In the final moments of stoppage time, Iraqi attacker Amin was brought down by a Vietnamese defender in the box, and the referee decisively blew the whistle to award a penalty. Hussein scored a brace from the penalty and helped Iraq complete a 3-2 victory over Vietnam. After winning this game, the Iraqi team also won the group and marched into the knockout round with their heads held high!
As a result of winning the group, the Iraqi team will go to the top half, and their opponents in the knockout round will be the third team with the best results, and with the current form of the Iraqi team, they should be able to pass easily. In the next 1/4 finals, the Iraqi team will face the winner between the UAE team and the Tajikistan team, judging from the previous performance, no matter who the two teams finally advance, it will be difficult to compete with the Iraqi team, so this West Asian team will most likely reach the top four, and they are also expected to be black to the end, repeating the myth of winning the championship in 2007!
The Iraqi team is also the old rival of the Chinese men's football team, and the two sides have always won and lost each other's battles before, and it is difficult for anyone to say that they can win the opponent. But today's Iraqi team seems to have become a big mountain in front of Chinese football, not to mention competing with Japan and South Korea, these traditional Asian powerhouses, whether the national football team can compete with the Iraqi team, there must be a big question mark!