Australia produced a dominant performance to defeat Vietnam 3-0 in their AFC U17 Asian Cup Saudi Arabia quarter-final last night. The Aussies will aim for a first final appearance when they take on China in the semi-finals on Tuesday.
In another quarter-final tie, Uzbekistan overcame Korea Republic 5-3 on penalties at the King Abdullah Sports City Training Stadium.
With the score level at 2-2 at the end of 90 minutes, substitute goalkeeper Mehrojbek Sirojiddinov emerged Uzbekistan’s hero in the shootout, denying Park Kyung-hoon to send his team into a semi-final against four-time champions Japan on Tuesday.
Australia went in search of an early goal as Max Court’s header from Sajjad Nasiri’s corner delivery in the fourth minute grazed the top of the crossbar while Georgio Hassarati’s shot from inside the box was well saved by Ly Xuan Hoa.
Vietnam gradually grew into the game with Nguyen Van Duong’s pacy dribble in the 23rd minute creating an opening for Le Sy Bach, only for Miles Milliner to make a great recovery challenge to block the attempt.
Ly then pulled off a stunning save in the 32nd minute, diving full stretch to his left to palm away a fierce Hassarati strike from the edge of the box.
The deadlock was broken with four first half minutes to play when Vietnam failed to clear an Australia long throw, allowing Henrique Oliveira to head the ball to Oliver O’Carroll, who just couldn’t miss from close range.
Vietnam probed for the equaliser after the interval with Nguyen Minh Thuy warming the gloves of Charlie Wilson-Papps before Le’s mazy run into the box was thwarted by another fantastic Milliner block.
Those misses came back to haunt the Southeast Asian side on the hour mark when Court’s long punt forward was expertly controlled by Hassarati squeezing home past Ly from an acute angle.
Australia confirmed the win in the 75th minute when substitute Akeem Gerald cut in from the right flank, exchanged passes with Court before slotting home to seal a first semi-final appearance since 2018.
Heartbreak for Korea
A tepid opening 15 minutes saw no openings created or shots taken whatsoever as both Korea and Uzbekistan struggled to find their rhythm, with Uzbekistan having a slight advantage in possession over their opponents.
The match came to life in the 22nd minute when following a fast break, an unmarked Moon Ji-hwan collected a loose ball in the centre of the area and fired beyond Uzbekistan keeper Olimjon Shamuratov’s reach for the opening goal.
The Central Asian side could have leveled four minutes later but Sukhrob Sadirdjanov lingered over the ball in a one-on-one with keeper Moon Yu-no, and the midfielder’s last-minute exchange with Ravshanbekov ended with Sadirdjanov booting the ball wide from outside the six-yard box.
Sadirdjanov was again denied in the 29th minute when his tame shot from the left was pushed away by a diving Moon, with Mukhammad Khakimov then heading wide from the resulting corner.
Uzbekistan’s constant pressure paid off in the 41st minute when Moon failed to properly handle a lobbed back-pass from Korea Republic forward Nam Ian, with Ravshanbekov robbing the helpless custodian of the ball and guiding it into the back on an empty net.
Ravshanbekov secured his second goal two minutes into added time when he burst down the right, evaded three defenders and sent a perfectly-weighted shot from the edge of the area that dropped into the top right corner beyond an outstretched Moon.
Uzbekistan continued to keep their opponents on the back foot after the break but Korea Republic gradually began to assert themselves, with Choi Jae-Hyeok trying his luck in the 56th minute from 35 yards and Ahn Joo-wan sending his shot high and wide 10 minutes later.
Sadirdjanov tested Korea Republic’s substitute keeper Jang Jun-yeong with a stiff grounder in the 68th minute while there was more drama on the other end when Ahn forced Shamuratov to push the ball away in the 80th minute with Han Seung-min’s follow-up effort cleared off the line.
Korea Republic finally found their equaliser in the 88th minute when An Sun-hyun, picking up a poked pass from skipper Choi Min-jun, curled the ball from the edge of the area past a rooted Shamuratov to force the tie to penalties.
Uzbekistan had sent on Sirojiddinov just before the final whistle, and he produced the save of the day to deny Park’s spot-kick to send his team into the semi-finals.
