U23 Asian Cup 1/4 finals, Qatar U23 home against Japan U23!The two sides drew 2-2 in regular time, and in overtime, the Japanese team played one more player, and finally scored two goals in extra time, defeating Qatar 4-2 to become the first team to advance to the semifinals of this Asian Cup!
Ten Qatar 27% possession rate is still glorious
Qatar played against Japan, Japan blitzed the goal, 2 minutes, Japan U23 player Kaede Yamada scored a goal, 24 minutes, Qatar stubbornly equalized! And after that, the turning point of the game happened: 41 minutes, Yusuf Valillard received a red card! Qatar faced a difficult situation of one less player! And even so, Qatar led 2-1 after that, and finally drew 2-2 with Japan in regular time, and the game was dragged into extra time.
Playing one less person for a long time, running back and forth made the Qatari players' cardiopulmonary endurance reach the extreme, and the physical fitness was obviously insufficient, the Japanese team finally broke through the Qatari defense after 110 minutes, and scored two goals in a row to take away the game! In the whole game, Qatar had only 27% possession, the shooting ratio between the two sides was 10-22, and the shooting on target ratio was 2-7.
Stopping in the quarterfinals, Qatar announced that it would not participate in the Paris Olympics
A total of 16 teams will participate in this tournament, with the top three teams going straight to Paris 2024, and the fourth team will compete with Guinea in the African zone in a play-off for an Olympic spot.
Comparing the performance of Southeast Asian football, except for Japan and South Korea, the pace of other teams in East Asia has stagnated! Indonesia and Vietnam have qualified for the top eight. Football in Southeast Asia has developed rapidly in recent years, and the map of Asian football has undergone visible changes. The Chinese team is too difficult, the opponent is getting stronger and stronger, and where is the future of our football?
Japan advanced to the semi-finals of the Asian Cup
Japan was blessed with a 1-0 defeat to South Korea in the third round of the group stage! Avoiding the bottom half of the death zone as they wished! If Japan successfully qualified for Paris, Japan would have participated in the Olympic Games for the eighth consecutive time. South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Uzbekistan are all in the bottom half of the death zone, and it won't be a surprise which of the three teams will advance to the final.
Japan's second place in the group fell to the top half, and after passing Qatar, the road to the final is almost all over! Japan's opponent in the semifinals will be the winner between Iraq and Vietnam! Looking at the second half, if South Korea advances to the semifinals, the opponent will be the winner between Saudi Arabia, which unexpectedly slipped second in the group, and Uzbekistan, which is the most valuable player in Asia.
Compared with the national first team, the gap in strength between the U23 national teams is limited, and life and death are unpredictable until the last moment! Who will win the U23 Asian Cup, let's wait and see!