Qatar stun South Korea to reach first Asian Cup semi-final
Hatem's late goal was enough to see Qatar dump South Korea out of the 2019 Asian Cup and progress to the last four for the first time ever.
South Korea v Qatar: Asian Cup, as it happened
South Korea v Qatar: preview
South Korea-Qatar: Key Opta Facts
- This will be the fourth encounter between South Korea and Qatar in the Asian Cup but the first time in the knockout stage - South Korea winning two and Qatar winning the other in group-stage meetings.
- South Korea are looking to reach the Asian Cup semi-finals for the fourth successive tournament – only three sides have achieved this feat (Iran five – 1972-1988, Japan four – 2000-2011 and Saudi Arabia five – 1984-2000).
- Qatar's 1-0 victory over Iraq in the round of 16 was their first ever knockout-stage win in the Asian Cup – however, they have lost both quarter-final matches, in 2000 against China and 2011 against Japan.
- After just five clean sheets in their first 32 Asian Cup games (nine tournaments), Qatar have kept four clean sheets in their four games in the 2019 Asian Cup.
- South Korea's Son Heung-min has created 10 chances for his team-mates in the 2019 Asian Cup; only Qatar's Akram Hassan Afif (13) has created more.
Players to watch:
South Korea – Kim Min-jae
Nicknamed 'Monster', centre-back and reported Watford target Kim will have his work cut out against the tournament's top-scorer Almoez Ali, who netted seven times in the group stage, including four against North Korea in a 6-0 rout.
Qatar - Saad Al Sheeb
Sanchez's side are yet to concede a goal at the competition and if the Al Sadd keeper can maintain that record against the likes of Spurs star Son, Qatar will have an excellent chance of reaching a first Asian Cup semi-final.
Match preview: what they said
S.Korea (Bento): "I am not concerned that Son hasn't scored, it isn't mandatory that he scores for the national team," said Bento. For us, what is most important is that we score in every game in this competition. I think we should have scored more goals as we created a lot of situations in almost all the games we played. It is not important who scores, what is most important is that we create opportunities and score.
Qatar (Sanchez): "We know we are going to face a very tough game against what many people believe are one of the favourites for the tournament," he said. "Once you reach this far in the competition, it is normal to have injuries or players suspended".