The night of the Asian Cup 1 8 finals is destined to be unforgettable. On this night full of suspense and surprises, two teams that were not favored - Tajikistan and Jordan - became the biggest dark horses of this Asian Cup with amazing performances, and advanced to the quarterfinals together, allowing the world to witness their strength and style.
The Tajikistan team, a team ranked even worse than the Chinese men's football team in the world, showed amazing combat effectiveness in its first participation in the Asian Cup. In the group stage, they faced Qatar, China and Lebanon, ranking first in Group A with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 loss, and successfully entered the knockout stage. In the 1 8 finals, they eliminated the West Asian powerhouse UAE team with an aggregate score of 6-4 through a penalty shootout, and amazingly reached the quarterfinals. This team, which participated in the Asian Cup for the first time, proved its strength with practical actions and wrote a legend.
At the same time, another dark horse, the Jordanian team, also showed good strength. In the group stage, they deliberately lost to Bahrain and managed to break through with a third-place finish in the group, avoiding strong opponents such as Japan and Saudi Arabia. In the first round of the knockout round, they welcomed the Iraqi team, which was not too strong.
In the game, Jordan took the lead in breaking the deadlock, but Iraq scored two goals in a short period of time in the second half to make it 2-1. However, Iraq's number one striker, Hussein, was sent off for over-celebration, and the balance of victory began to tip in Jordan's favor. In the 5th minute of stoppage time, Jordan equalized through the net with an Arab goalkeeper; Rushdan blasted a brilliant kick from outside the box to help Jordan finish in the final moments to beat Iraq 3-2 and reach the quarter-finals.
The rise of these two dark horses is not accidental. In the latest FIFA rankings, Tajikistan is ranked 106th and Jordan is ranked 87th. Despite not being highly ranked, both teams have a lot of quality and a lot of experience in the game. Their fighting spirit, tactical literacy and teamwork skills are all key factors in making them dark horses.
With the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup all in place, Tajikistan, Jordan, Australia, South Korea, Iran, Japan, Qatar and Uzbekistan will compete for the trophy. In this game full of suspense and anticipation, who will be the final winner? We'll see.