2-2 to 1-1! South Korea is too tenacious, Son Heung-min hit the 64-year record, and Ma Ning is aiming for the Asian Cup final
The 2024 Qatar Asian Cup will enter the semi-finals, and the Japanese team, the biggest favorites to win the championship, will stop in the quarterfinals. Hosts Qatar, Iran, South Korea and dark horse Jordan will meet in the semi-finals. At 23 o'clock Beijing time tonight, the first Asian Cup semi-finals will be staged, and the favorite South Korea will compete with the dark horse Jordan team for the right to the final, the two teams met in the group stage, when Jordan and South Korea drew 2-2. CCTV5 will broadcast the game live.
In the quarterfinals, the Japanese team played against Iran, and finally Iran took revenge and eliminated Japan to reach the semifinals of the Asian Cup for two consecutive years. In addition, Tajikistan and Jordan both have the best records in the Asian Cup in their respective team history. But the most tenacious team is the South Korean team, in this Asian Cup, except for the first round of the South Korean team, the remaining four games were drawn in regulation time.
South Korea is ranked 23rd in the world and 3rd in Asia, behind Japan and Iran. In the group stage grouping, the South Korean team's signing luck was very good, and Bahrain, Jordan and Malaysia were in the same group, there was not much suspense about winning the first place in the group, but after the first round of the group stage against Bahrain, the South Korean team suddenly did not play the team, and faced the Jordan team in the second round of the group stage, the South Korean team was scored by captain Son Heung-min in the first case, and conceded two goals in a row, and finally drew the opponent with the Jordanian team's own goal in stoppage time, which surprised the fans.
In the final round of facing the Southeast Asian fish belly team Malaysia, the South Korean team played extremely hard, Zheng Youying scored a goal, but then the defense again conceded two goals in a row to be overtaken by Malaysia, in the final stage of the game, Son Heung-min scored a penalty shot to overtake the score, but Malaysia scored a tie by Morales, and the South Korean team finally drew 3-3 with Malaysia, advancing as the second in the group, successfully avoiding the Japanese team.
Entering the knockout round, the state of the South Korean team is still not improving, in the 1/8 final with the Saudi team, the South Korean team conceded in the 46th minute, and the lag lasted until stoppage time, and at the end of the game, Cho Gyu-sung headed the equalizer, and the South Korean team was pulled back from the precipice of the game, and finally eliminated the Saudi team in the penalty shootout. In the quarterfinals, the South Korean team faced Australia, the South Korean team was completely passive on the field, and Goodwin's goal in the first half made the South Korean team fall behind again, this time it was also in stoppage time, Son Heung-min made a point, Hwang Hee-chan scored a penalty shot, and in overtime, Son Heung-min scored a free kick directly to complete the stunner and advance in a thrilling way.
Jordan's path to qualification was easier than South Korea's, with Jordan beating Malaysia 4-0 in the first game and a 2-2 draw with South Korea in the second round.
In the 1/8 finals, the Jordanian team played against the Iraqi team, the game was full of twists and turns, Jordan scored a goal by Yazan, but in the second half, Iraq scored two goals in a row by Natick and Hussein to overtake the score, with Hussein being sent off with a red card, the Jordanian team fought back comprehensively, in stoppage time, Alarab and Nizar scored two goals in a row, and finally the Jordanian team beat Iraq with a score of 3-2 to advance.
In the quarterfinals, the Jordanian team met with the dark horse Tajikistan, and in the second half, Hanonov set himself up for an own goal, and the Jordanian team defeated the Tajikistan team with a score of 1-0 and reached the semifinals, which was the first time in the history of the Jordanian team to advance to the semifinals of the Asian Cup, setting a new record.
South Korea were the favourites to win the tournament after Japan's exit, having won back-to-back titles in the first two editions of the Asian Cup in the last century, but for 64 years they missed out on the title, reaching the final of the Asian Cup in 2015 but losing to Australia. Son Heung-min is the number one star in the South Korean team, in this Asian Cup, Son Heung-min's performance is average, and now entering the crucial semi-finals, Son Heung-min must stand up in time to attack the final and the final championship trophy.
Although the Chinese men's football team was eliminated from the Asian Cup early, China's two famous whistles Ma Ning and Fu Ming are still active in the Asian Cup, Ma Ning is the referee of the quarterfinals between Japan and Iran, and Fu Ming officiated the quarterfinals between Tajikistan and Jordan. In this match, Ma Ning, as the fourth official, will witness the semi-finals between South Korea and Jordan. According to Ma Ning's performance in this Asian Cup, it is very likely that he will eventually become the referee of the final, let's wait and see.