Original title: (Qatar World Cup) Australia, Japan and South Korea stopped in the top 16 and all AFC teams were eliminated
China News Agency, Beijing, December 6th. As the South Korean team stopped at the top 16, all 6 AFC teams participating in this cup were eliminated.
On the morning of the 6th, Beijing time, the Qatar World Cup ended the third day of the 1/8 finals, and the East Asian duo Japan and South Korea appeared one after another. In the first battle between the Japanese team and the Croatian team, the two sides drew 1:1 in regular time and overtime. After a penalty shootout, the Japanese team lost 2:4; In the battle, the “Samba Army” took a 4:0 lead in the first half and finally won 4:1.
On the first day of the knockout round, the Australian team lost to Argentina 1:2 and was the first to be eliminated. So far, the three AFC teams that have advanced to the top 16 have all stopped. Since the 2006 World Cup, Asian teams have failed to reach the quarter-finals in the past five World Cups.
A total of 6 Asian teams from Japan, South Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the Australian team that joined the AFC in 2006 participated in this cup, creating the largest scale of AFC teams participating in the World Cup.
In the group stage, except for the Qatar team who lost all 3 games and became the first host team in the history of the World Cup with 0 points and 0 wins, the AFC team performed well overall, not only creating its highest record in the World Cup group stage. Excellent record, but also left a number of classic battles where the weak defeated the strong.
In the first round, the Saudi team and the Japanese team both defeated the favorites Argentina and Germany 2:1, causing the four-time cup champion Germany to be out of the final group; in the second round, Iran lost 2:6 to the England team in the first match The team defeated the Welsh team led by former Real Madrid star Bale 2:0.
In the last round of the group stage, the AFC teams staged a Jedi counterattack one after another. The Japanese team reversed and defeated the Spanish team and qualified as the top of the “death group”; the South Korean team beat the Portuguese team in stoppage time and advanced at the buzzer; the Australian team beat the tenth-ranked Danish team in the world and replaced the “Fairy Tale Kingdom” to advance to the top 16 . It is the first time in the history of the AFC Team World Cup that 3 teams will advance to the knockout stage together.
Prior to this, the best record of an AFC team in the World Cup group stage was in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, when both Japan and South Korea reached the round of 16. Before the Australian team became an AFC team, the best record of an Asian team in the World Cup group stage was in the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan, where the two host teams, South Korea and Japan, advanced together.
In the history of the World Cup, the best record of an Asian team also appeared in the 2002 World Cup. As one of the hosts, the South Korean team reached the semi-finals. But since then, Asian teams have been unable to break through the “barrier” of the top 16.