Defeating defending champion Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan competes for Olympic tickets with Indonesia

Two years ago, U23 Uzbekistan lost to U23 Saudi Arabia in the final of the U23 Asian Championship. Fate forced them to face off in the quarterfinals of this year’s tournament.

This time, U23 Uzbekistan successfully took revenge against U23 Saudi Arabia. After 90 minutes of play, the Central Asian team defeated their opponent 2-0. Thus, U23 Uzbekistan will face U23 Indonesia in the semi-finals.

In this match, U23 Uzbekistan “threw away” their technical and dedicated playing style. Instead, they showed a rough (even ugly) style of play to stop U23 Saudi Arabia.

For most of the first half, the two teams continuously committed fouls. Players kept lying on the field, causing the match to fall apart. The ball’s time on the field is not much.

In that match, U23 Uzbekistan scored from the first shot in the 45+2 minute. Saudi Arabia’s U23 defense made a mistake allowing Husain Norchaev to go down. This player passed the ball past the U23 Saudi Arabia goalkeeper before opening the score.

In the second half, Uzbekistan U23 continued to show rough playing style. They are ready to lie on the field to make the match crumble. As a result, U23 Saudi Arabia players could not keep calm. This team’s brightest star, Ayman Yahya, received his second yellow card and left the field in the 69th minute.

Playing without players, U23 Saudi Arabia cannot make a difference. Not only that, they also conceded another goal in the 82nd minute. Umarali Rahmonaliyev scored for Uzbekistan U23. The score of 2-0 was also the final result of the match.

U23 Uzbekistan is only one semi-final away from qualifying for the Olympics with U23 Indonesia.

Uzbekistan’s coach is determined to take revenge on Saudi Arabia in the quarterfinals

Coach Timur Kapadze expressed satisfaction with Uzbekistan U23’s achievements in the group stage. He said: “We passed the group with 3 wins, without conceding any goals. This is a collective victory. I would like to thank the whole team. The players worked very hard.” to achieve good results like today.

The important thing is that U23 Uzbekistan did not have any injuries before the quarterfinals. U23 Uzbekistan will prepare for the quarterfinals from this moment. It will be a difficult match for us.

We are doing our best to prepare for the next match, because the whole team still has big goals to achieve. The players try their best for this important goal and mission

In the quarterfinals of the 2024 U23 Asian Finals, U23 Uzbekistan met defending champion U23 Saudi Arabia. This match recreates the 2022 Asian U23 Championship final and U23 Saudi Arabia is the winning team and becomes the champion.

Assessing the upcoming match worth waiting for, coach Timur Kapadze affirmed that U23 Uzbekistan is different from 2 years ago and is very determined to collect their debt from their opponents.

“We faced U23 Saudi Arabia in the U23 Asia 2022 final and now the quarterfinals. After 2 years, they are different, we are also different. U23 Uzbekistan is trying to improve every day.

U23 Saudi Arabia is a strong team. But like I said, we also have our own goals and will fight to the end, both physically and mentally, to achieve that goal,” coach Timur Kapadze concluded.