History, Indonesia Qualifies For The Round Of 16 Of The Asian Cup

The wait was filled with worry and finally finished. The Indonesian national team is the last team to qualify for the last 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup.

The certainty of the passing of the Garuda Squad does have to wait until the last match of the group stage is complete on January 25, 2024.

To be precise, they have to wait for the results of the Bahrain vs Jordan party in Group E and Oman vs Kyrgyzstan in Group F.

The last match of Group E was played first, which was 18.30 WIB. Bahrain had time to make the Garuda Squad nervous.

You see, they were able to conquer Jordan with a narrow score of 1-0 through Abdulla Yusuf Helal's goal. The striker who had played at Persija Jakarta scored the winning goal in the 34th minute.

Bahrain's victory led them to become leaders in Group E after South Korea vs Malaysia ended the 3-3 series which appeared at the same time.

In fact, after Bahrain's victory, the position of the Indonesian national team remained at the fourth best third-placed ladder.

There is only a change in position where Jordan replaces Bahran in the best third-placed path and occupies the top position.

This means that the Garuda Squad only hopes that in the Oman vs Kyrgyzstan match it will be the last determinant to play the match at 22.00 WIB.

The position of the Indonesian national team was evicted to the fifth ladder, aka thrown from four tickets to the best third-placed route when Oman won 1-0 in the eighth minute through Muhsen Al-Ghassani.

Luckily, Kyrgyzstan managed to score a equalizer goal when the match had 10 minutes remaining through Joel Kojo. The 1-1 score lasted until it was over.

The results of the 1-1 series Oman vs Kyrgyzstan returned the Indonesian national team to the fourth best ranking third place. Oman returned to the fifth ladder of the route with two points.

In other words, the Garuda Squad has the right to get tickets to the last 16 of the 2023 Asian Cup. This is the first time the Red-White Team has made it to the knockout stages in five editions of participation in the Asian Cup.

In the four consecutive participations of the Indonesian national team in the previous Asian Cup finals, they always stopped in the group stage.

In the 1996 and 2000 editions, the Garuda squad only finished as caretaker of the group. Two editions later, 2004 and when they hosted in 2007, the Indonesian national team finished third in the group.

The 2023 Asian Cup provides the best fourth-placed team of six groups to qualify for the knockout round. The rule is the second time it has been applied in the Asian Cup since the 2019 edition.

Prior to the two latest Asian Cup editions, from the 2004 Asian Cup to 2015 to be precise, the biggest football tournament in Asia only included 16 teams divided into four groups.