People's Daily Online, Beijing, February 11 (Reporter Ou Xingrong) On February 10, local time, in the final of the Qatar Men's Football Asian Cup, Afif scored three penalties to help the Qatar team defeat the Jordan team 3:1 and successfully defend the Asian Cup championship, and this Asian Cup has officially come to an end.
Ma Ning (center) blows a penalty in the final of this Asian Cup. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Han.
The Jordan team is the "big dark horse" of this Asian Cup, ranking 87th in the world and 13th in Asia before the start of the game. They finished third in the group stage with a best finish but beat Iraq, Tajikistan and South Korea in the knockout stages to reach the final of the Asian Cup for the first time in their history.
Hosts Qatar are on the winning squad, winning all three of their group games to top the group. Qatar defeated Palestine, Uzbekistan and Iran in the knockout stage to reach the final after the 2019 Asian Cup in the United Arab Emirates.
The final will be played at Qatar's landmark Lusail Stadium, which is also the venue for the 2022 World Cup final and the opening match of the Asian Cup. Due to the outstanding performance of the Chinese referees in this Asian Cup, the Chinese referee team was responsible for the referee, of which Ma Ning served as the referee, Fu Ming served as the VAR referee, and Zhou Fei and Zhang Cheng served as assistant referees. This is also the first time that the Chinese referee team has refereed the Asian Cup final.
Qatar striker Afif took the penalty in the final. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Jiang Han.
After the start of the game, the two teams did not try to test and directly launched an attack. In the 21st minute of the game, Qatar striker Afif burst into the Jordanian penalty area and was tripped up, Manin awarded a penalty kick at the first time, and Afif then took the penalty in one fell swoop, and the Qatar team took the lead. In the 67th minute of the game, Jordan's player Nimath volleyed home to help Jordan equalize.
In the 73rd minute, the Qatar player burst into the penalty area with the ball and was brought down, and Ma Ning's **VAR (** assistant referee system) replayed it and awarded a penalty again, and Afif then scored a "brace" from the penalty. In stoppage time in the second half, Afif was tripped by the Jordanian goalkeeper in the penalty area, and after VAR intervened, Manin awarded a penalty for the third time, and Afif scored a "hat trick" to seal the win for Qatar.
In the end, the Qatar team defeated the Jordan team 3-1 and successfully defended the Asian Cup championship. At the subsequent award ceremony, Afif, who scored 7 goals in this Asian Cup, won the (Most Valuable Player Award) and the Golden Boot Award (Top Scorer Award).