1-1 to 3-2! The big dark horse of the Asian Cup was born, hitting the top 4, rewriting the 68-year history, and the national football team was out
The 2024 Asian Cup continued in Qatar, and the Chinese men's football team was in the same group as Qatar, Lebanon and Tajikistan in the group stage draw, but in the end, the Chinese men's football team drew 1 draw and 2 losses, and did not score 1 goal and went out. In the knockout round, the United Arab Emirates and Iraq were eliminated by upsets, and Saudi Arabia was eliminated by South Korea.
With the exit of the three quasi-strong teams, this Asian Cup has also given birth to two big dark horses, Jordan and Tajikistan broke out of the encirclement, reached the quarterfinals, and will meet in the quarterfinals. At 19:30 on the evening of February 2, Beijing time, the first 1/4 finals of this Asian Cup will be staged, and the two dark horses Jordan and Tajikistan will meet in a narrow way to compete for the top four seats.
Tajikistan is ranked 107th in the world, the lowest ranked team in the world to reach the quarterfinals. Tajikistan is participating in the Asian Cup for the first time and will be in Group A with hosts Qatar, China and Lebanon in the group stage draw. In the first round of the group stage, Tajikistan and the Chinese men's football team clashed, the two teams attacked and defended each other in the game, before the end, the national football team scored with a header by Zhu Chenjie, but Jiang Guangtai was judged to be offside, the goal was invalid, and Tajikistan got the first point in the Asian Cup.
Tajikistan faced the hosts in the second round of the group stage, and Afif's goal helped Qatar win, Tajikistan paid a red card in the game, and Kamolov was sent off for a violent foul. In the final round of the group stage, Tajikistan and Lebanon competed for the right to qualify for the group, and Tajikistan scored two goals in a row to beat Lebanon after conceding one goal first, beating the Chinese men's football team and advancing to the knockout round as the second in the group.
Knockout stage, Tajikistan against the West Asian powerhouse United Arab Emirates, after the group stage exercise, Tajikistan ushered in the outbreak, and the United Arab Emirates in the game, Tajikistan did not blindly defend, but took the initiative to attack, received miraculous results, Hanonov opened the scoring in the first half, although the UAE attacked under the stoppage time draw, but in extra time both sides did not achieve, penalty shootout, Tajikistan defeated the United Arab Emirates with a score of 5-3, reached the quarterfinals, set a record in team history.
Jordan is ranked 87th in the world, the group is in the same group as South Korea, Bahrain, Indonesia, Jordan defeated Malaysia 4-0 in the first round, in the second round, Jordan faced the powerful South Korean team, Jordan scored two goals in a row after conceding a goal to overtake the score, in stoppage time, Alarab unfortunately put himself in the own long, and finally Jordan and South Korea drew the game. Jordan had a chance to win the group, but considering that the group leader needed to face Japan, Jordan lost 0-1 to Bahrain in the final round and finished third in the group.
Jordan met the same West Asian Iraqi team in the 1/8 finals, in the first half of stoppage time, Yazan scored a single goal to open the scoring, but in the second half, Iraq scored two goals under the attack to achieve a reversal, but with the Iraqi main striker Ayman Hussein was sent off with a red card, the Jordanian team used the advantage of numbers to launch a crazy attack, in stoppage time, Alarab and Nizar scored two goals in a row, and finally Jordan reversed Iraq 3-2, and the team reached the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup for the first time in history.