The AFC Asian Cup is entering the final stages and there are no easy games left to play. South Korea required extra time to get past Bahrain, whilst Qatar narrowly edged past previous winners Iraq. This should be a close, but interesting game. Here is our preview and prediction for this AFC Asian Cup Quarter Final Game;
South Korea v Qatar – Preview & Prediction
Who: South Korea vs. Qatar
When: Friday January 25th at 5pm (Local Time) / 10pm (Korea Time)
Where: Zayed Sports City Stadium, Abu Dhabi
South Korea have narrowly won all of their games so far, in a similar fashion to the previous AFC Asian Cup four years ago. Son Heung-Min was the star against China, but looked a little off against Bahrain, so fingers crossed he’ll bounce back in time for this game. Qatar were impressive during the group stages, but only beat Iraq 1-0 on Tuesday and showed some issues moving forward. They are however defensively strong. Almoez Ali is currently the competitions top goalscorer and will be the main danger for the Middle Eastern Nation.
H2H Record:
South Korea – 4
Draws – 2
Qatar – 1
Last Time; Qatar 3-2 South Korea. Qatar got the better of South Korea a couple of years ago in a world cup qualifier, that it to date their only win over the East Asian Nation. Son Heung-Min has scored vital winners against Qatar in the two prior world cup qualifiers.
Prediction:
This is going to be a tight game. Qatar haven’t conceded a goal during the whole tournament so far, and look defensively impressive. However Korea will have hopefully learn some lessons following their AET win over Bahrain and should have the edge at the end of the day. It will be a close game, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see extra time and maybe even penalties.
South Korea 2-1 Qatar
Finally
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Modern Seoul 