The Maroons have reigned supreme with back-to-back titles and remain the kings of Asian football.
After an abrupt exit from the FIFA World Cup, Qatar came into the 2023 AFC Asian Cup with heavy hearts and a chip on their shoulders, with the poorest performance of a host country in World Cup history still looming over their heads.
They went about their redemption arc in the most inspiring fashion, blazing through the 2023 AFC Asian Cup with dominant win after dominant win. They finished the group stages as the winners of Group A with an undefeated record and zero goals conceded to boot.
It was more of the same in the knockout phase, where they surgically thumped Palestine, Uzbekistan, and Iran en route to the final against Jordan.
Even Jordan, who had one of the most inspirational runs in the tournament, succumbed to the might of Qatar in the final with a 1-3 score line.
Ultimately, the Maroons successfully avenged their humbling exit in the World Cup on their home soil and dominated every adversary that came their way in the AFC Asian Cup. With their triumph, they garnered their second Asian Cup title and remain the best football nation in Asia.
Akram Afif’s magnum opus
The main catalyst for Qatar’s success in the tournament has been their maestro, Akram Afif. The winger set the tone right from the beginning of the group stages by scoring a brace during their Matchday 1 bout against Lebanon.
The 27-year-old had his footprints in all of their matches, whether it was netting goals, creating for his teammates, or even, at times, carrying the whole team on his back.
He capped off his campaign with a hat-trick against Jordan in the final that sent him and the rest of the Maroons to the highest pedestal of Asian football.
Not only did Afif lead his team to the Asian Cup title, but he was also granted the Most Valuable Player Award and the Top Goal-scorer Award. Afif finished the competition with the highest tallied goals (8) and the highest amount of assists to boot (3).
Jordan’s fairytale run
No one saw Jordan’s meteoric rise, and they all paid the price.
Jordan were one of the underdogs coming into the tournament. They finished third in Group E, below Bahrain and Korea Republic, but the Jordanians were still able to qualify for the Round of 16 because of their ranking.
They barely made it to the knockout phase, squeezing into the Round of 16 as one of the best-four third-place finishers in the group stages. But once the Round of 16 started, they looked like an entirely different squad.
They thrashed Aymen Hussein and the rest of Iraq with a five-goal thriller, then proceeded to clean sheet Tajikistan in the quarterfinals.
But the match that put them on the front page of AFC Asian Cup 2024 news stories was their clash against Korea Republic in the semis.
Jordan stunned not just the Korea Republic but the entire football world, as Jordan’s final third got the best of Kim Min-jae and the rest of the star-studded defencive line of the Taeguk Warriors.
Al-Nashama produced the biggest upset of the entire tournament with a 2-0 clean sheet victory against Son’s Korea Republic to advance to the final stage, where they fell short against the defending champions, Qatar.
Even though they fell short in the final, Jordan have managed to capture the hearts of fans all over the world, as well as the respect they rightfully deserve amongst their Asian rivals.
it’s safe to say that Jordan are the real deal.
Korea Republic and Japan fall gracefully
Two of the AFC Asian Cup 2024 odds favourites to win the title this term surprisingly didn’t make it to the final. Neither Korea Republic nor Japan were able to champion Asia despite having two of the most stacked rosters in the continent.
Japan cruised through the group stages up to the knockout phase, with Ayase Ueda leading the charge. They qualified for the Round of 16 with ease and proceeded to dominate the Group E winners, Bahrain, with a 1-3 score line. Which is why their fall against Iran in the quarterfinals came as a shock for most of the fans following the tournament, this SBOTOP writer included.
Elsewhere, Korea Republic had a strong campaign when it’s all said and done. They came as far as the semifinals by eliminating tough opponents such as Australia and Saudi Arabia. And it was starting to look like Klinsmann was on to something special with the Taeguk Warriors.
But despite the superiority of their talent, they still fell to the hands of the tournament’s dark horse, Jordan, in the semifinals with a 2-0 score line.
Now, the team, Klinsmann especially, is under turmoil from fans after a “humiliating” exit from the tournament. Klinsmann was already under fire in Korea ever since he got the job because of his refusal to live in the country, so it will be interesting to see how they deal with the controversy when they return to World Cup qualifiers next month.
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