*This content was translated by AI.
The quarterfinals of the 2026 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-23 Asian Cup of the South Korean Under-23 (U-23) national soccer team have been confirmed to be Australia.
Australia scored two goals in the third Group D match of the tournament at Prince Faisal bin Fakhd Sports City Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on the 14th (Korea Standard Time), winning a 2-1 come-from-behind victory over Iraq.
Australia, which scored six points (2-1) with the victory, advanced to the quarterfinals as No. 1 in Group D, beating China (five points, one win, two draws), which was 0-0 with Thailand at the same time.
In Group D, No. 1 Australia and No. 2 China advanced to the quarterfinals respectively, while Iraq and Thailand were eliminated from the group stage.
As a result, South Korea, which came into the quarterfinals as the second-ranked player in Group C the previous day, will play Australia, the first-ranked player in Group D, at 0:30 a.m. on the 18th at the Prince Abdullah Alfaisal Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
South Korea, led by head coach Lee Min-sung, was completely defeated 0-2 in the final match against Uzbekistan and remained at four points (1 win, 1 draw, 1 loss), but at the same time, Iran (2 points) lost to Lebanon (3 points), making it to the quarterfinals as second place in the group after Uzbekistan (7 points).
Australia, the quarterfinal opponent, is a team that was eliminated from the group stage in the 2024 tournament. He ranked third at the 2020 Thailand Games and fourth at the 2022 Uzbekistan Games. South Korea has the upper hand with nine wins, four draws, and three losses in the past between the U-23 national teams.
If South Korea beats Australia and reaches the semifinals of the tournament, it will compete with the winning team in the Japan-Jordan match for the finals.
South Korea first won the 2020 tournament, but was eliminated early in both the quarterfinals in the 2022 and 2024 tournaments.
At the 2024 Olympics, when the Olympics were held, it also served as an Olympic Asian qualifying tournament, but the Olympics were not held this year, so it has nothing to do with the right to participate in the Olympics.
Instead, the final performance of this tournament will affect the allocation of ports at the 2028 AFC U-23 Asian Cup, where the Los Angeles (LA) Olympic qualifiers are at stake. There are only two Asian tickets for the 2028 LA Olympics.
<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>
*This content was translated by AI.
