Qatar Football AssociationNational Teams | U-23
26.01.2018 15:50 in : &

KUNSHAN: A first-half strike by Akram Afif on Friday helped Qatar beat Korea Republic 1-0 on the penultimate day of the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

The hard-fought win at Kunshan Sports Centre saw Qatar finish the 16-team tournament in third place.

At the last edition, hosts Qatar finished in fourth place but went one better at the 2018 championship.

Afif claimed the winner in the 39th minute.

In the second half, Qatar goalkeeper Yousuf Hassan kept out Hwang Hyun-soo’s spot-kick, earning Felix Sanchez’s side the consolation of the tournament’s bronze medal.

Played in frigid conditions after heavy overnight snow, both teams cancelled each other out in a tense opening 30 minutes that yielded little in goal mouth action.

Yoon Seung-won’s glancing header – which was well wide of the mark – was a rare sight of goal for the Koreans while at the other end Afif fed the ball through to Abdelrahman Moustafa, but was shepherded to safety by Hwang Hyun-soo.

As the half wore on, though, Qatar started to find pockets of space to exploit. Moustafa’s low driven cross from the right caused concern in the Korean backline as it eventually fell at the feet of Almoez Ali, but his shot was deflected wide.

With six minutes remaining in the half, Sanchez’s side took the lead.

Afif raced in behind the Korean defence as Qatar broke quickly and the Belgium-based attacker scored at the second attempt after Kang Hyeon-mu saved his initial shot on goal.

Just five minutes into the second half, the Koreans were handed the opportunity to level the scores when the assistant referee decided Tameem Al Muhaza had handled Park Jae-woo’s driven cross into the area.

But Korean captain Hwang saw his penalty saved by Hassan, the Qatar goalkeeper diving to his left to push the shot to safety and keep his side’s lead intact.

Afif squandered the opportunity to double his side’s advantage soon after when he latched on to Ali’s throughball, only for Kang to save, while Lee Keun-ho – on as a halftime substitute for the ineffective Yoon – was causing problems for the Qatar defence.

The Koreans tried to break the Qatar defense in the last few minutes but Al Anabi held firm to retain their slender lead.

The final of the tournament takes place on Saturday when Uzbekistan take on Vietnam. Uzbekistan beat Korea Republic in the semifinals while Vietnam had edged Qatar in a thrilling penalty shootout in the other last-Four clash on Monday.