Uzbekistan 2-3 Korea Republic

AFC – DOHA, Ji Dong-won scored twice as Korea Republic finished third in the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ with a highly-entertaining 3-2 win over Uzbekistan at the Al Sadd Stadium on Saturday.

The win also secured an automatic place for the Taeguk Warriors at the 2015 AFC Asian Cup in Australia.

Koo ja-cheol had given the Koreans an early lead with his fifth goal of the tournament before Ji put them firmly in control with two goals in 11 minutes.

With their 6-0 semi-final defeat at the hands of Australia still fresh in their minds, Uzbekistan fans must have feared the worst but Alexander Geynrikh struck either side of half-time to give the Central Asians hope. However, they were unable to conjure the crucial equaliser that would have sent the contest into extra time.

Korea took the lead after 17 minutes when Lee Yong-rae broke forward before releasing Koo to bear down on goal and he kept his cool to beat Ignatiy Nesterov with a clinical finish.

Odil Akhmedov then curled a long-range effort beyond Jung Sung-ryong’s far post before Korea doubled their lead in the 27th minute.

Some incisive build-up play ended with Lee Chung-yong moving the ball on to Koo and he played in Ji on the far side of the box, allowing the forward the time and space to drill a powerful finish across Nesterov and into the bottom corner.

Azizbek Haydarov’s driving run on the half-hour mark ended with a decent strike from 20 yards that Jung pushed around the post at full stretch before Ji sidefooted straight at Nesterov at the other end.

But Korea went three goals in front after 38 minutes when Ji met a cross from the right with a leaping header near the penalty spot that beat Nesterov’s despairing dive on its way into the back of the net.

However, Uzbekistan were handed a way back into the game two minutes before the interval when Hwang Jae-won pulled down Timur Kapadze just inside the box.

Geynrikh stepped up to take the penalty and his audacious chip sent Jung the wrong way as it floated into the back of the net. Unfortunately for the midfielder, a retake was ordered due to encroachment so he opted to blast the ball past the Korean keeper at the second time of asking.

Geynrikh then halved the deficit with a fine individual effort in the 52nd minute. After superbly bringing down a cross from the left on the edge of the box, he turned Lee Jung-soo inside out before dispatching a low finish past Jung at his near post.

Ji was inches away from connecting with Lee Young-pyo’s low cross in the 61st minute and five minutes later was unfortunate to see a low shot from the edge of the area come back of the post.

Geynrikh then produced some silky skills and after linking with Server Djeparov, fired just over from distance as Uzbekistan pressed for an equaliser but were unable to breach a determined Korean backline for a third time.