© EuroFootball.com
Today, in the remaining two quarterfinal matches that were played, the Asia champions Iran footballers and the Japan national team celebrated victories three times.
In the intense battle, the Iranian national team, where forward Al Karimi stood out, scoring a hat-trick in the match, celebrated a victory against the Republic of Korea with a score of 3-4.
In this quarterfinal, two teams promoting very attacking football met, which is clearly reflected in the result of the match. It is worth mentioning that Iran took the lead in this match four times, and Karimi scored the winning goal with only 13 minutes left until the end of the match.
There were incidents in the match - Iranian national team defender Ebrahim Taghipour, who collided with Seol Ki-Hyeon in the 13th minute of the match, suffered a serious injury and was taken to the hospital by an ambulance.
After the match, both teams received a thunderous ovation from the spectators - this was how the fans thanked the players for the undoubtedly most interesting match in this year's Asian Cup.
Korea 3 - 4 Iran
10' [0 - 1] Al Karimi 16' [1 - 1] Seol Ki-Hyeon 20' [1 - 2] Al Karimi 25' [2 - 2] Lee Dong-gook 51' [2 - 3] Park Jin-sub (own goal) 68' [3 - 3] Kim Nam-il 77' [3 - 4] Al Karimi
The other quarterfinal match caused a lot of discussions. The winner was determined only after a very controversial penalty shootout ended in a 1-1 draw by the end of regulation and extra time.
Discussions arose when after three penalty shootouts, the Malaysian referee ordered to change the goals into which they were being shot. Only after the match did the captain of the Japan national team explain to everyone that he suggested to the Malaysian referee to take the penalties on the other side of the field, where the stadium conditions were better.
"(Shunsuke) Nakamura and Alex made mistakes because of the very poor condition of the stadium, and it was very unfair," Miyamoto said and quickly found parallels with Euro 2004. - "Beckham scored two 11-meter penalties in the European Championship because of the poor stadium conditions."
Miyamoto believes that this decision by the referee determined the outcome of the quarterfinal, but expressed outrage that the second 11-meter penalty was taken by a player from the Jordan national team from the other side.
It is worth mentioning that it took as many as 14 penalty shootouts to determine the winner.
Japan 1 - 1 Jordan (Japan won the penalty shootout 3:4)
11' [0 - 1] Mahmoud Shelbaieh 14' [1 - 1] Takayuki Suzuki
In the semifinals, which will be played on August 3, Bahrain will face the defending champion Japan, and the tournament host China will face Iran.
