The two teams entering the 2023 Asian Cup finals have been identified as host Qatar and Jordan. On the FIFA rankings, Jordan is ranked 87th in the world and 13th in Asia, while Qatar is ranked 58th in the world and 6th in the continent.
The scenario of the two low-ranked teams competing for the Asian Cup championship is beyond the experts' estimates. In terms of strength, the two teams are not rated too highly. The Qatari team includes all players playing domestically, while the Jordan team only has 1 player playing in Europe.
It is even more surprising that the 4 strongest teams in the continent based on the FIFA rankings include Japan (ranked 17th in the world), Iran (ranked 21st), South Korea (ranked 23.3) and Australia (ranked 25.5) could not reach the final. In history, these 4 teams have won the Asian Cup a total of 10 times.
The Japanese team won like a haystack before the Asian Cup, but in the tournament they performed below expectations. In the quarter-final, they were completely inferior to Iran, before losing 1-2. Iran later became the victim of the Qatari underdog in the semi-finals, despite having 22 shots in the match.
The Korean team showed their ups and downs throughout the tournament, before being eliminated by Jordan in the semi-finals. The Korean team continues its empty streak in the continental arena, which has lasted since 1960. Meanwhile, Australia was eliminated by South Korea in the quarter-finals after 120 minutes of play.
South Korea, Japan and Australia advanced to the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Although they showed their ability to compete in the world, they could not create achievements or results commensurate with their ranking at the 2023 Asian Cup.
This shows that the gap between Asian teams has gradually been leveled. In the past, the gap between the continental top teams and the rest was huge. But this year, the matches between South Korea, Iran, Japan or Australia with opponents all took place very tightly.
Now, the powers of Asian football can no longer comfortably dominate the Asian Cup, because the class and level of their opponents have skyrocketed very quickly, commented Sports Seoul.
