There are still the last 4 games in the group stage of the Asian Cup in Qatar, of which 2 matchups in Group E have attracted much attention, including Jordan VS Bahrain, and South Korea VS Malaysia, the results will directly determine which team locks the first place in the group, and after advancing to the round of 16, it will meet the top favorite Japan, so that Jordan, South Korea, and Bahrain do not want to win, so the game started at 7:30 p.m. at the same time, and the teams began to act together.
On the previous match day, Japan defeated Indonesia 3-1, accumulated 6 points in 3 rounds to lock up the second place in the group, and advanced to the knockout stage for 9 consecutive tournaments, ranking first in history during the same period.
Due to the second place in the group, Japan had to fall into the bottom half, the same half has Iran, Qatar two favorites, and potential South Korea, if past the round of 16, the top 8 and the top 4 are likely to meet Iran and Qatar, the last Asian Cup, Japan eliminated Iran in the semi-finals, but lost to Qatar in the final.
Now Japan is waiting for the round of 16 opponents, which will be produced between Jordan, South Korea and Bahrain.
At present, in the Group E standings, Jordan and South Korea have 4 points, Jordan has a goal difference and is temporarily in first, South Korea is second, Bahrain is third with 3 points, Malaysia is at the bottom with 0 points, and is out of the tournament in advance due to Indonesia's loss, 3 points in 3 rounds, so that South Korea and Jordan, which have already scored 4 points, will lock in the qualification in advance, so that the two teams have no worries, and how many goals they lose in the last round can ensure that they advance to the knockout round.
For Jordan and South Korea, they don't want to win in the last round, if the two teams draw at the same time, Jordan is the first and South Korea is second, so it is not ruled out that Jordan deliberately loses and gives up the first place in the group to South Korea, of course, if South Korea also acts, if it loses to Malaysia, then the first team in the group will be Bahrain.
For Bahrain, a point against Jordan, or just one goal loss, could be the third place in one of the best groups, joining Jordan and South Korea to qualify for the knockout rounds.
As the second favorite to win the championship after Japan, South Korea wants to win the championship, but they don't want to meet Japan so early, so the second round match with Jordan is very abnormal, the players' desire to win is not strong, and the final round against Malaysia is likely to be the same.
In this regard, fans have heated discussions: "Play together, lose together, and finally Bahrain will play Japan first, Jordan will play Saudi Arabia, and South Korea will play Qatar", "South Korea dares to lose the game that Jordan does not dare to lose", "It is South Korea's turn to score".
If you are not careful, South Korea really ranks first in the group and can only meet Japan in advance. Just in case, South Korean coach Jurgen Klinsmann came to the scene in advance to watch the match between Japan and Indonesia and inspected it.
According to German transfer statistics, Japan is worth 317 million euros and South Korea is worth 193 million euros, and if the round of 16 meets will be more than 500 million euros, which can be called a final-level rehearsal.