South Korea reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup. In the eighth final, the Koreans settled the result Socross. The opening goal came from Craig Goodwin, a former Sparta Rotterdam player. Heung-Min Son made the difference in the end. Jordan awaits in the semi-finals.
Goodwin had previously had a good opportunity in the first quarter of the match after he cleverly evaded the Korean defensive superiority, but Connor Metcalfe missed a greater opportunity on the counter. At the other end, Hee-Chang Hwang scored, but the fun was spoiled by the flag signal. At the end of the first half, Godwin won the ball on the edge of the opponent's penalty area. He launched an attack and finished the match himself with a beautiful shot.
After the break, Australia pulled away and it was up to the Korean Jurgen Klinsmann to find a gap in the yellow wall. AZ Alkmaar goalkeeper and captain Matthew Ryan had little to fear from the motives of Son and his 10 Korean teammates: they could not force anything. Thanks to Graham Arnold's side, things remained exciting until the end, and missed opportunities on the counter-attack proved very costly in the end.
Son fell inside the penalty area, leading to a penalty kick for the Koreans in the fifth minute of stoppage time. Hwang shot the ball into the corner where Ryan also jumped, but he did it so cleanly that the goalkeeper missed the ball. So extensions.
The Australians could not overcome the disappointment. Son scored the winning goal from a beautiful free kick. Aiden O'Neill was ejected before the end of the first overtime period. In the last fifteen minutes, it was to Ryan's credit that the score did not rise any further, but the Korean passage to the semi-finals was no longer in danger.
Therefore, the opponent will be Jordan on February 6 in Al-Rayyan. This team defeated Tajikistan earlier on Friday thanks to Vahidat Kanonov's own goal. This is a unique achievement: Jordan has never reached the semi-finals of the Asian Cup before. The other two quarter-final matches will be held on Saturday: Iran vs. Japan and Qatar vs. Uzbekistan.
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