{"id":57856,"date":"2024-02-08T21:06:56","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:06:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/best-yet-to-come-after-qatar-set-up-asian-cup-final-with-jordan-the-express-tribune\/"},"modified":"2024-02-08T21:06:56","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T21:06:56","slug":"best-yet-to-come-after-qatar-set-up-asian-cup-final-with-jordan-the-express-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/best-yet-to-come-after-qatar-set-up-asian-cup-final-with-jordan-the-express-tribune\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Best yet to come’ after Qatar set up Asian Cup final with Jordan | The Express Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\nDOHA:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Goal-scorer Akram Afif said “the best is yet to come” after hosts and holders Qatar squeezed into an Asian Cup final against Jordan with a dramatic 3-2 win over Iran on Wednesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Almoez Ali struck in the 82nd minute in Doha to send Qatar into their second consecutive final, further exorcising the demons of their first-round exit at the 2022 World Cup.<\/p>\n

Qatar lost all three of their World Cup games on home soil just over a year ago, the worst record of any host in the competition’s history.<\/p>\n

But that was all a distant memory as they celebrated in front of over 40,000 fans after a breathless semi-final at Al Thumama Stadium.<\/p>\n

“This victory was not easy,” said Afif, who scored his fifth goal of the tournament to give Qatar a half-time lead.<\/p>\n

“We are very proud of ourselves and our fans. They deserve tonight’s win and hopefully the best is yet to come.”<\/p>\n

Iran had Shojae Khalilzadeh sent off in injury time before an ugly confrontation between both sets of players flared after the final whistle.<\/p>\n

“The things we were hearing from the stands was not really nice and respectful, that’s why there was a reaction afterwards,” said Iran winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh.<\/p>\n

It came at the end of a frenetic encounter that saw both teams go on the attack from the first whistle.<\/p>\n

Sardar Azmoun gave Iran the lead in the fourth minute before Qatar equalised soon after when Jassem Gaber’s shot went in via a heavy deflection.<\/p>\n

Afif then scored with a wonderful strike minutes before half-time, only for Iran to equalise through a Jahanbakhsh penalty early in the second period.<\/p>\n

Match-winner Ali scored an Asian Cup-record nine goals to lead Qatar to the 2019 title but he had managed only one heading into the semi-finals of this year’s tournament.<\/p>\n

His late strike was worth the wait for Qatar, who will now try to beat Jordan <\/a>in Saturday’s final for their second Asian title.<\/p>\n

“I think that we played a very big match,” said Qatar coach Tintin Marquez, who took over from Carlos Queiroz only a month before the tournament.<\/p>\n

“The players did not spare any effort tonight. Now we have one final step left in order for us to defend our title.”<\/p>\n

Qatar<\/a>‘s win ended Iran’s bid for a first Asian Cup since 1976.<\/p>\n

They had several chances to take the game into extra time, with Jahanbakhsh hitting the post in the final minute of added time.<\/p>\n

Coach Amir Ghalenoei apologised to the Iranian fans and called it “one of the worst days of my life”.<\/p>\n

“But this is football and if you don’t take your chances then you will be punished,” he added.<\/p>\n

The game had barely begun when Azmoun gave Iran the lead with a well-taken finish, hooking the ball over his head and into the net.<\/p>\n

Qatar equalised in the 17th minute when Afif pulled the ball back for Gaber, whose shot on goal deflected off Iran’s Saeed Ezatolahi and looped up over goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand.<\/p>\n

The equaliser gave Qatar new energy and Afif curled home a superb strike after jinking his way into the box in the 43rd minute.<\/p>\n

Iran regrouped at half-time and drew level just six minutes after the break.<\/p>\n

A VAR check ruled that Qatar defender Ahmed Fatehi had blocked a goal-bound shot with his hand and Jahanbakhsh made no mistake from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n

The action continued at breakneck speed and Ali decisively restored Qatar’s lead when he controlled a shot from Abdulaziz Hatem and turned it past Beiranvand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DOHA: Goal-scorer Akram Afif said “the best is yet to come” after hosts and holders Qatar squeezed into an Asian Cup final against Jordan with a dramatic 3-2 win over Iran on Wednesday. Almoez Ali struck in the 82nd minute in Doha to send Qatar into their second consecutive final, further exorcising the demons of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/Qatar's-Akram-Afif-AFP1707395100-0\/Qatar's-Akram-Afif-AFP1707395100-0.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57856","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}