South Korea remain on course for a first Asian Cup title since 1960, after Heung-min Son scored a marvellous free-kick winner in extra time that gave his side a 2-1 quarter-final win over Australia.
In an evenly-contested match that was a repeat of the 2015 final which Australia won in extra time, this time it was South Korea’s turn to taste victory in the 30 added minutes. They will face first-time semi-finalists Jordan on Wednesday.
Australia took the lead just before the break when Craig Goodwin volleyed home superbly from Connor Metcalfe’s hoicked cross.
South Korea have only made the Asian Cup final once since 1988 and are one of the competition’s all-time biggest underachievers, but they came out firing in the second half and were the strongest team after that point.
Australia would come to rue wasteful finishing late on when Son won a penalty after a poor tackle by Hibernian’s Lewis Miller. Hwang Hee-chan of Wolves stepped up to thunder South Korea into extra time.
Once they reached that stage, Jurgen Klinsmann’s side were even more dominant. They cashed that in for a quite stupendous winner when Miller fouled Hwang and Son stepped up to curl a magnificent free-kick over the wall and into the net.
Soon after, it went from bad to worse for Australia as substitute Aiden O’Neill was shown a straight red card for a horrendous challenge on Hwang.
South Korea should have wrapped the game up in the second half of extra time once Australia had committed bodies forward, but they held on to set up a semi-final against Jordan, in which they will be clear favourites to make next Saturday’s final.
