SouthKorea

Asian Cup drama ready to ramp up in last 16 after wild, emotional groups | John Duerden

27-Jan-2024 11:18:38 | The Guardian

Eight teams are out but all played their part in the drama so far, including surprise last-16 spots for Syria and Palestine

When tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people – OK, many of them were from China, hoping for a miracle – are breathlessly tuning in to see what happens between Tajikistan and Lebanon and seeing something historic, heartbreaking and just plain dramatic then you know that something is going well. Nobody knows what is going to happen in this wild, exciting and dramatic Asian Cup in Qatar. It’s already been emotional – Syria’s translator broke down after the coach Héctor Cúper secured their first ever second round spot – and the group stage will go down as the best that the tournament has produced for a long, long time. Just eight of the 24 teams have gone home but they all played their part.

Some did so by being historically bad. China did not even score a goal but it seemed like their apparent plan of squeezing through with three draws was going OK. After two points from the first two they were rocked by an absolute belter from Qatar’s Hassan al-Haydos. Team Dragon returned home to a mix of disdain and apathy. They had hoped that Tajikistan and Lebanon would end all square but there were three great goals in that game, with the central Asians scoring in injury time to advance to the second round for the first time, depriving a desperate and devastated Lebanon of doing the same.