In the early morning of April 26, Beijing time, a key battle in the 1/4 finals of the U23 Asian Cup was played by South Korea against Indonesia. In the end, South Korea broke out a big upset, being eliminated with an overall score of 12-13, failing to qualify for the Olympics for 10 consecutive times, and at the same time saw Indonesia advance to the semi-finals in its first competition. In addition, Japan eliminated Qatar 4-2, so they did not have a chance to qualify with South Korea.
As the champion of the 2020 Games, South Korea is still the favorite to win the championship despite failing to call up the strongest team, beating the United Arab Emirates, the National Olympic Games and Japan in the group stage, and winning three consecutive victories to qualify, although the team's minimum goal is to successfully advance to the Paris Olympics.
Now South Korea has entered the knockout round, ushering in a real challenge, the opponent Indonesia has a number of naturalized players, the first time to participate in the group qualification, with strong competitiveness, but also let this game has a certain suspense, South Korea is not a sure win.
Judging by the competition, it is.
After the opening, South Korea's advantage was not obvious, and even as the game progressed, the field began to be at a disadvantage, and the offensive statistics were thrown away by Indonesia, until the first 70 minutes of the game, there was not even a shot on target.
In the 15th minute, Rafael Strujk helped Indonesia take a 1-1 lead, and South Korea did not rely on their opponents to set up an own goal until the first half of stoppage time, but soon conceded again, and it was Rafael Strujk's goal that helped Indonesia take a 2-1 lead again.
In the second half, South Korea suffered another blow. In the 70th minute, Lee Yongjun was sent off after receiving a red card, causing South Korea to play one less game, and the scene was more passive, and finally lost the penalty shootout and lost to Indonesia with a score of 12-13.
So far, South Korea has stopped in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive time, and at the same time has missed the Olympic finals for 10 consecutive times, and the Asian team record set by it has been terminated again.
A quarter-final was played earlier by Qatar against Japan. The two teams met again in the U23 Asian Cup after four years, when the two sides drew 1-1, and now Qatar is very competitive with home advantage, plus this Japan team is not the strongest team, which adds a lot of suspense to the game.
In the end, the game staged a goal battle, Japan scored in the opening 1 minute, and then Qatar scored 2 goals in a row to complete the overtake, Japan drew 2-2 in the second half, and the game entered overtime, Japan scored 2 goals in just 11 minutes, and finally eliminated Qatar 4-2 in extra time.
At this point, there are 2 places in the semi-finals of the Asian Cup, including Japan and Indonesia, and 2 places will be produced between Saudi Arabia vs Uzbekistan and Iraq vs Vietnam.
In the previous group stage, South Korea won three consecutive victories, including defeating China's Olympic Games, but now they are also out early and missed the Olympic Games. Our National Olympic Games, despite 1 win and 2 losses, still created the best record in history with a result of 9th place.