January 8 – With just four days left before the kick-off on Friday (Jan 12) of the 2023 Asian Cup in Qatar, there has been a flurry of last-minute fixtures as nations fine tune squads or in some cases desperately seek form and formation ahead of the tournament.
Hong Kong’s surprise 2-1 win over China behind closed doors raised football’s geopolitical eyebrows, while tournament favourites Japan put five unanswered goals past Thailand.
Most active on the ‘friendly’ match circuit have been Saudi Arabia who beat Lebanon 1-0 and face consecutive warm-up games against Palestine and Hong Kong on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Qatar’s final warm-up game before they open the tournament on Friday against Lebanon, saw them lose 2-1 to Jordan.
The Qataris go into the tournament under a new head coach, Bartolomé Marquez, but with most of the team that won the 2019 Asian Cup still in place. They will be reliant on the creativity of Akram Afif (ten assists at the last Asian Cup), and a return to goalscoring form by Almoez Ali. He hit four against Afghanistan suggesting he may be peaking at the right time in a recent friendly by the Jordanian match would not have inspired confidence.
Afif scored for the Qataris but they were generally overrun by the Jordanians whose shot count of 17 against Qatar’s four indicated the flow of the game.
Japan face Jordan on Tuesday in a warm-up game that will likely provide an indication as to whether the Jordanians are a new force to watch out for.
Other pre-tournament favourites negotiated their final warm-ups games successfully. South Korea beat Iraq 1-0 while Australia put two past Bahrain.
Iran beat Burkina Faso 1 and are in action again on Tuesday against Indonesia.
Thursday is the lull before the storm with Lusail Stadium, the scene of the dramatic World Cup final between Argentina and France in 2023, back on the world stage for the opening game. It will also close out the tournament on February 10.
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