As I predicted, in the end Qatar defended its Asian Cup title for the second time. In this match, what was unique was that three of Qatar's goals came from the penalty spot. Akham Afif scored a hat-trick and became the winning hero in this final match. As the match progressed, Qatar was slightly better technically. Likewise, based on opportunities, Qatar had 16 total shots, 6 on target, 1 big chance. 57% ball possession. In contrast, Jordan only had 8 total shots, 7 on target, 3 big chances. however, only one of them was able to convert it into a goal in this final match. well, in the end my prediction at the beginning since the progress of this thread was according to the scenario.
In the end, Qatar won the 2023 Asian Cup again. thus, Qatar was able to defend its title and became the first team in two decades to win the Asian Cup in two competitions. well, there are no other words other than congratulations to Qatar for winning this championship. in the Jordan camp, I really appreciate their performance so far. In fact, Jordan was able to reach the final round of the Asian Cup. At the very least, they were able to prove that their team was worthy of being taken into account in this championship. in the end, this competition was won by Qatar again.
Qatar were able to successfully defend their title as the Asian champions today after convincingly defeating Jordan in a game that produced so many entertaining moments. Qatar's striker Akham Afif scored a hat trick or penalties to help the Qatar national team to triumph the whole Asia for the second consecutive time.
Jordan without doubt surprised many people as they were able to reach the final of the tournament for the first time in their history. I was actually seeing South Korea or Australia as the favorites to win the tournament but little did I know that Qatar would be this impressive in the tournament. Congratulations to them.
Personally, I was not convinced by the Qatari performance, nor that Qatar is actually capable of achieving progress compared to many of the well-established teams in the official Asian Championship. This is not to belittle Qatar or to diminish its value, but in fact there is a clear difference in the levels of performance and determination to win.
At the beginning of the tournament, everyone was betting on the Qatari team at every stage, considering it was the tournament organizer. But none of them expected such a rapid rise, reaching the finals, and then winning so easily.
It was a surprise since Qatar succeeded in progressing to the quarter-finals and then succeeded in defeating well-established teams that had been performing well throughout the tournament. Even those who were rooting for Jordan were often from their Arab Qatari brothers.