Group matches of the Asian Cup have ended, and so have the events for the Round of 16. The football tournament will next move on to the quarterfinals, where eight teams will contest for a spot in the semis. Two matches are yet to happen, giving two more teams a chance in the knockout round. The most recent match was between South Korea and Saudi Arabia. It was a close call, but the Korean side ended up strong, grabbing the win by 4-2 in penalties.
In the realm of online Football betting, all eyes are on the tournament as the excitement builds. Their next meet is with Australia. Coach Juergen Klinsmann is all game, except he understands that the competition could be tough. Juergen has said that that is the price they have paid for not ranking at the top of their group. Australia is also likely to pose a problem because they have won the tournament once in 2015. Meaning, they know how to reach the finals and end the tournament as champions.
Interestingly, South Korea had narrowly missed their chance to make it to the next round. They would have been out of the football tournament if it were not for the extra time over the usual 90-minute run. Abdullah had enough defensive strategy in the first half, forcing him to take a shot immediately after the gates opened for the second run.
He took less than 2 minutes and bagged the opener. The Korean side lasted long enough with their own defensive stretch, not letting their opponents score another net. Finally, in the 99th minute of the game, Cho Gue-sung equalized the tally, keeping his team’s hopes alive.
South Korea dominated their run with 58% possession. They managed to take 22 shots out of which 8 hit the target. While the team made it through, the coach was not necessarily looking forward to shootouts. He said that they wanted to win the game before it went to penalties. Juergen is now confident that they will recover from the tiresome game that went on for 120 minutes. Their next football match is with Australia, with a gap of 2 days.
That said, Saudi Arabia is out of the tournament, as are Indonesia, the UAE, and Iraq, among others. Iran versus Syria and Bahrain versus Japan will happen back-to-back to occupy the remaining spots on the table. Teams that win those matches will lock horns in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup.
For now, it is right to state that India is one of the teams that have disappointed their fans. They lost all three group matches for a GD of -6. Their opponents in Group B were Australia, Uzbekistan, and Syria. Other teams that finished lowest in their respective tables without a single win are Hong Kong and Vietnam. The rest of the team didn’t win but did draw one out of three events.
