Korea Republic leave it late to break Jordan hearts

After Jordan substitute Yazan Al-Najmat had cancelled Cho Kyu-seong’s opener for Korea Republic, it initially looked as though the last-eight tie was headed for extra-time and potentially penalties.

But, in the fifth and final minute of injury-time, Lee Dong-gyeong curled home a sublime freekick to break Jordanian hearts and send his side into a semi-final meeting with Australia on Wednesday.

As the only team in the competition that boasted a 100 per cent record from the group stage, the South Koreans headed into the clash as favourites to progress and things were definitely going according to plan initially as they opened the scoring with 16 minutes on the clock.

A well-worked set-piece routine saw Kim Jin-kyu take a freekick short to Kim Dae-won, who floated a first-time ball to the back post that was nodded down by Jeong Tae-wook

Jordan goalkeeper Abdallah Al-Fakhouri came off his line to deal with the threat but was beaten to the punch by Lee Dong-jun as he forced the ball on to Cho, leaving the striker with a straightforward header into the unguarded goal.

Al-Fakhouri did make amends for that slight error just four minutes later when he prevented the Taegeuk Warriors from doubling their lead, producing a fine fingertip save to tip over Kim Dae-won’s ferocious long-range effort.

It was Korea Republic who continued to dominate proceedings and they were unlucky not too make it 2-0 seven minutes after the break, when Kim Jin-kyu’s ferocious freekick from almost 30 yards had Al-Fakhouri beaten all ends up only to rattle the bar.

The woodwork came to the Jordanians’ rescue again in the 69th minute, this time with Al-Fakhouri helping it onto the foot of the post after Kim Jin-ya did well to cut in from the left and fire away a snapshot.

Yet, the more chances that the South Koreans, the more it felt as though Jordan would deal a sucker punch especially as they showed more control since a chance in formation at the break.

Right on the 75th minute, the equaliser arrived when Mohammad Bani Atieh’s speculative effort from outside the area lacked power but turned out into a pass right at the feet of Al-Najmat, who instinctively swivelled towards goal before finding the bottom corner.

Just when it looked like Jordan had done enough to take the game into another 30 minutes, the South Koreans had one final opportunity to snatch the win deep into injury-time when Lee Dong-gyeong won a freekick on the edge of the box.

The Ulsan Hyundai starlet picked himself up and took responsibility of the situation, and proceeded to curl a brilliant strike that sailed past Al-Fakhouri at full stretch before clipping the inside of the near post and nestling into the back of the net to win it for Korea Republic in dramatic fashion.

KOREA REPUBLIC: Song Bum-keun, Lee You-hyeon, Jeong Tae-wook, Lee Sang-min, Kim Jin-ya, Won Du-jae, Maeng Seong-ung (Lee Dong-gyeong 46’), Kim Jin-kyu (Jung Seung-won 85’), Lee Dong-jun (Oh Se-hun 72’), Kim Dae-won, Cho Kyu-seong.

JORDAN: Abdallah Al-Fakhouri, Saed Al-Rosan, Hadi Al-Hourani, Danial Afaneh, Ward Al-Barri, Ahmad Haikal (Ibrahim Sa’deh 87’), Noor Al-Rawabdeh, Mohammad Bani Atieh, Mohammad Aburiziq (Yazan Al-Najmat 66’), Omar Hani, Ali Olwan (Ihab Al-Khawaldeh 46’).