The U23 Asian Cup quarter-finals continued with the remaining two matches. Uzbekistan U23 vs Saudi Arabia U23. In this game, Norchaev scored the goal of Saudi Arabia in stoppage time of the half. Saudi U23s suffered another blow in the second half, with Yahya sent off in the 70th minute with two yellows and one red, resulting in Saudi U23s playing with just 10 men. In the final moments, Rakhmonaliev also scored to extend the score. In the end, Uzbekistan U23 defeated Saudi Arabia U23 with a score of 2-0. The chances created by both sides were similar in this game, except that the Uzbekistan U23s had a higher quality of shots. Saudi U23s had only one of their 10 shots on target and failed to score. Uzbekistan U23 has performed very strongly in this tournament, winning 4 consecutive games, scoring a total of 12 goals, and not conceding a single goal, which is incredible!
The other quarter-final was between Iraq U23 and Vietnam U23. Iraq U23 dominated the game with a whopping 58% possession and 18 attempts at goal with 8 on target but only 1 goal scored. Ali Jassim relied on a penalty to score the only goal of the game. Vietnam's U23 played more passively, with 8 shots on goal and 1 shot on target, failed to score, and was sent off by Nguyen Manh Hung at the last moment. The dark horse of Vietnam U23 has fallen! Iraq U23 has reached the top 4!
In the previous two quarter-finals, Japan U23 eliminated Qatar U23 4-2 and Indonesia U23 eliminated South Korea U23 13-12 on penalties. So far, the top 4 of this Asian Cup have all been born, Japan U23, Iraq U23, Indonesia U23 and Uzbekistan U23 have all qualified. There is only one dark horse left among these 4 teams: Indonesia U23. It was a surprise that Indonesia U23 were able to knock out South Korea's U23s, who made history by knocking out the mighty South Korea U23s in the last four by playing the Under-23 Asian Cup for the first time.
Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Vietnam are all out. The semi-finals are: Japan U23 against Iraq U23 and Indonesia U23 against Uzbekistan. Clearly, Japan Under-23s are the favourites to win the title. At the same time, Uzbekistan, which won all 1 goal in this tournament and did not concede a goal, is also the favorite to win the championship. Who will have the last laugh?