Doha, Qatar: The non-stop drama continued in the semi-finals of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 with the hosts winning a thrilling contest against Iran on Wednesday and Jordan stunning South Korea a day earlier. Defending champions Qatar booked their place in the final thanks to Almoez Ali’s decisive strike in a 3-2 victory, while it was second-half goals from Yazan Al Naimat and Mousa Al Tamari that put paid to Korea’s bid to win a first continental title since 1960.
As Qatar and Jordan now look ahead to Saturday’s showpiece event at Lusail Stadium, the-AFC.com highlights the stats and facts that caught the eye in the last-four encounters.
No stopping Afif
Another goal and another assist for Akram Afif as Qatar’s talisman moved onto five goals and three assists in what is proving to be an outstanding continental campaign for the forward once more.
He now sits just one goal behind the competition’s leading scorer Aymen Hussein and, with three assists to his name (joint top for the tournament), a goal in Saturday’s final will give him a good chance of picking up the top scorer accolade.
Quick off the blocks
In a tournament that has made headlines for numerous dramatic late goals, Sardar Azmoun’s opener against Qatar after three minutes and 10 seconds was the fastest goal of the knockout rounds and second fastest of the whole competition.
The only goal scored earlier was from Azmoun’s teammate Karim Ansarifard, whose strike after just one minute and three seconds in the group stage against Palestine remains the quickest to date.
Successive shutouts
Jordan goalkeeper Yazid Abu Layla and his defence have now kept two successive clean sheets, while no other team has managed a shutout in either the quarter-finals or the semi-finals.
Indeed, the only other side to keep a clean sheet in the knockout rounds was Australia when they defeated Indonesia 4-0 in the Round of 16.
On the ball
Hwang In-beom had more touches (117) and more successful passes (90) than any other player in the semi-finals as the Korean midfielder sought to assert his authority on the game against Jordan.
The Taegeuk Warriors also had close to 70 percent of the possession in the semi-final, although they were unable to penetrate a resilient Jordanian defence.
Unbeatable
While Qatar’s winning run in the competition was stopped at 11 when they played out a 1-1 draw with Uzbekistan in the quarter-finals (which they subsequently won on penalties), their unbeaten stretch in the AFC Asian Cup continues.
The 3-2 win over Iran, which ended a six-match losing streak in all competitions against Team Melli, means they are now undefeated in 13 matches in the continental tournament with their last loss coming in the 2015 group stage against Bahrain.
Clinical countering
Conversely, Jordan were hugely effective yet again on the break with their second goal coming after Al Tamari’s darting counter-attack into the Korea Republic half which was followed by a sublime finish.
Jordan have now scored a tournament-leading four goals from fast breaks – three more than any other side – with opposition defences struggling to handle the speed of their attacks.
Semi-final heartache
It was a familiar tale for Iran, whose misery in the semi-finals of the AFC Asian Cup continued after the loss to Qatar marked the seventh time in a row Team Melli have been eliminated in the last four.
The Iranians have won the title three times, but since last being crowned champions in 1976, they have been unable to go beyond the semi-finals, with Wednesday’s defeat following on from a loss to Japan five years ago.
Third time lucky
Jordan made their AFC Asian Cup debut against South Korea in China back in 2004, playing out a 0-0 draw in Jinan. Two decades on, they met the Koreans in the group stage of the current edition, with only a stoppage-time own goal denying them victory in a 2-2 draw.
Tuesday’s semi-final marked the third time the sides had met in the competition as Jordan continued their unbeaten run against Korea, and this time picked up the win. It was also Jordan’s first-ever victory over the Koreans, having lost three and drawn one of their matches outside of the AFC Asian Cup.
