Ex-LASK player shot Qatar into the final of the Asian Cup

Hosts Qatar can continue to hope for a successful title defense at the Asian Cup. The emirate’s football team won somewhat happily in the semi-finals against Iran 3-2 and will therefore face Jordan in the final on Saturday (4 p.m.), who had eliminated South Korea the day before with coach Jürgen Klinsmann and his assistant Andreas Herzog.

The 27-year-old striker Ali Almoez, who wore the LASK jersey from July 2015 to the end of 2015, scored the winning goal for Qatar in the 82nd minute. Previously, ex-Leverkusen player Sardar Azmoun (4th) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored from the penalty spot (51st) for Iran and Jassem Gaber (17th) and Akram Afif (43rd) for the hosts. The Iranian Shojae Khalilzadeh was shown a red card in stoppage time (93′).

Qatar won the Asian Cup for the first time in 2019. At the home World Cup in 2022, however, the team was eliminated in the preliminary round.

There is great disappointment in South Korea after the 2-0 defeat against Jordan – with 70 percent possession of the ball but without a single shot on the opponent’s goal. “I’m really sorry for our fans,” said a dejected Son Heung-min. “It was a really tough tournament. The level of Asian football is getting higher and higher,” said the Premier League star from Tottenham, who finished the tournament without scoring a goal from play.

South Korea only won one of five games in regular time. Against Saudi Arabia and Australia, promotion was forced with late goals in extra time. The “Taegeuk Warriors” fought, but the selection, which also consisted of players from top European leagues, did not seem to be a unit. South Korea conceded at least one goal in every game, while the goals often came from individual actions.

Media wrote of a “devastating defeat”

Against the pressing of the world number 87. Jordan number 23 had no solutions. The Koreans lost the semi-final without a shot on the opponent’s goal. The media wrote of a “devastating defeat”. Klinsmann took responsibility for the elimination, but the 1990 world champion, who was unpopular in South Korea, did not offer his resignation. “The coach is always responsible for how a tournament goes for a team. The goal was the final. We didn’t manage that,” said Klinsmann, criticizing the fact that Jordan won every one-on-one duel in the first half hour.

The fact that the German was often caught smiling by the cameras when things were going badly on the pitch also caused a stir in the country. Klinsmann has a quick smile, but with it he “sometimes offends people,” wrote the national news agency Yonhap, after the team boss smiled and congratulated his counterpart on reaching the final. “It’s normal for me to congratulate the other team and the coach when they did better. That’s a sign of respect,” said the 59-year-old. Klinsmann then had to emphasize that he was disappointed and angry. He “certainly won’t be walking around and smiling” that evening.

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