Pre-match speech
Both teams experienced ups and downs in the group stage. U23 Australia struggled to come back to defeat U23 Iraq 2-1 in Group D in the final match. Meanwhile, U23 Korea lost to U23 Uzbekistan 0-2, thereby only ranking 2nd in Group C.
We are very happy and excited to have reached the quarter-finals. We have overcome a difficult group, and now we know we will face strong opponents. U23 Korea is one of the strongest teams, and that is a challenge that we are very looking forward to.
They are a strong team both individually and collectively. They like to control the ball, attack through the line behind the defense and take advantage of creative players.
In defense, they are well organized with a pressing and fierce counter-attacking style of play. We faced them six months ago in two exciting matches, and I expect the upcoming match to be no less exciting," said coach Tony Vidmar of U23 Australia.
With U23 Korea, they only had one win in the group stage, beating U23 Lebanon with a score of 4-2. The rest, they drew with U23 Iran and lost to U23 Uzbekistan. Head coach Lee Min-sung expects his players to improve their level even more in the quarterfinals.
In previous matches, we did not play at our best form and missed some opportunities, but in the quarter-final match against U23 Australia, we will show our best form.
U23 Australia is very excellent, but we are focusing on the squad and playing more decisively. If we maintain that focus, we believe we can achieve good results. In the group stage, we lack confidence, but improving that will help us go further.
In terms of fitness, we have prepared well throughout the tournament, but in terms of technique, there have been some mistakes in the last three matches, perhaps due to pressure. We will improve that in the match against U23 Australia and I believe that we will perform much better”.
Statistics
This will be the third time U23 Australia and South Korea meet at the AFC U23 Championship, in which the East Asian team has won in both previous encounters - a 3-2 victory in the group stage in 2018 and a 2-0 victory in the semi-finals in 2020.
U23 Korea has conceded 4 goals in the current tournament, the most in the group stage in a U23 Asian tournament they participated in. U23 Korea has also reached the quarter-finals in all 7 participations in this tournament. They are the only team that has done this.
U23 Australia scored the equalizer and the decisive goal in injury time in the 2-1 victory over U23 Iraq in the most recent match (90+3 and 90+7 minutes), becoming the second case in the history of the AFC U23 Championship to score 2 goals after injury time in the second half. Previously, U23 Uzbekistan did the same in the 2-1 victory over U23 China on January 12, 2014 (scoring in 90+2 and 90+4 minutes).
The U23 Australia vs U23 Korea match will take place at 10:30 PM on January 17.
