2024-02-08T10:16:26+00:00
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/ It seems that the West Asian and Arab teams have proven their superiority in the yellow continent, especially after three of them qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament, namely Qatar, Jordan and Iran, while only one team from East Asia qualified for the same round.
After playing the two semi-final matches, two Arab teams decided the result in their favor to qualify for the final match, and the scenario of the 2007 Asian Championship was repeated again, when Iraq and Saudi Arabia qualified for the final match and Iraq was crowned with the first title in its history with a goal by Younis Mahmoud.
Three teams from West Asia qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament: Qatar, which eliminated its Uzbek counterpart in the quarter-finals on penalties and then qualified for the semi-finals of the tournament; Jordan, which qualified for the semi-finals of the Asian Cup at the expense of Tajikistan, when it defeated it by one goal to nil; and Iran, which qualified at the expense of Japan, after defeating it by two goals to one. Meanwhile, South Korea, the only team from East Asia to qualify for the semi-finals, booked its place in the semi-finals after an exciting match against its Australian counterpart by two goals to one.
After a struggle between the four strongest teams that qualified after strong competitions, the Jordanian team secured its qualification for the Asian Cup final after defeating South Korea by two goals to nothing. This is the first time in its history that the “Nashama” team has reached the final, while Qatar qualified for the final match after an exciting victory over the Iranian team by three goals to two.
The Qatari national team, the host, the fans and the last title in 2019, will meet its Jordanian counterpart next Saturday in the coronation match at Lusail Stadium at six o’clock in the evening, as Qatar seeks to snatch its second title, while the Jordanians seek to achieve their first historical title.
In this regard, football analyst Saad Hafez told Agency, “The four teams deserved to reach the semi-finals due to the different level they presented in this edition, with a clear advantage for the West Asian teams.”
He added that the Qatari and Jordanian teams proved their worth in this major event and were able to embarrass teams that were hot candidates for the title.
And that “football gives to those who give, and Qatar and Jordan have given a distinguished technical level and proven that West Asian football is superior to East Asian football.”
For his part, coach Jabbar Hamid confirmed to Agency, “The Jordanian and Qatari teams restored the glory of West Asian football, especially after reaching the final match with merit and worthiness.”
He added, “Teams from East Asia such as Japan, South Korea, Australia and Uzbekistan had the best chances of winning, but the theory of whoever performs better wins has proven correct and confirmed that there is no strong team and another weak one, and that what the players perform on the field is the judge and decider of the teams’ eligibility.”
He pointed out that “there were teams from East Asia that were frightening to other teams, but in this tournament it was shown that the teams from West Asia are making great progress, and the evidence is that three of them reached the semi-finals, namely Jordan, Qatar and Iran, and one team from East Asia, namely South Korea.”