FIFA World Cup: Asian and Middle Eastern nations are making a mark with the World Cup in Qatar
Asian and Middle Eastern teams are having an excellent World Cup in Qatar and have started showing early signs of threatening the dominance of European and South American teams
Japan surprised many in Qatar after beating both Germany and Spain.The ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar is the second World Cup to take place in Asia, after Japan and South Korea co-hosted the event in 2002.
South Korea is the best-performing Asian team in FIFA World Cup history, having taken part in the competition 11 times and attaining the best result by an Asian team by finishing fourth during the 2002 event.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">What a fairytale journey for 🇰🇷 Korea Republic as they march on to the Last 16!<a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FIFAWorldCup?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FIFAWorldCup</a> | <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Qatar2022?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Qatar2022</a> <a href="https://t.co/Ev1rRrYLRg">pic.twitter.com/Ev1rRrYLRg</a></p>— #AsianCup2023 (@afcasiancup) <a href="https://twitter.com/afcasiancup/status/1598770583285731335?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2022</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Three teams from the Asian confederation have advanced to the knockouts in Qatar, a significant achievement considering only four Asian teams made it to the knockouts on a combined total of six occasions in the previous World Cups.
With six appearances at the World Cup, Iran has historically been among the few Middle Eastern teams to qualify for the World Cup consistently.
Qatar was only able to make its maiden appearance at the World Cup this year due to receiving the automatic qualification for being the host nation. They have never been able to qualify for the World Cup.
Iran, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the three Middle Eastern countries at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. However, all of them have failed to advance to the knockouts. Iran finished the group stage in third, while Saudi and Qatar were at the bottom of their respective groups.
The failure to make it to the last 16 does not mean that Middle Eastern nations did not leave their mark. Saudi Arabia surprised everyone by securing a 2-1 victory over Argentina in their opening match.
Japan finished at the top of the Group E table in Qarar by earning six points, two more than Spain in the second spot. Australia and South Korea advanced to the knockouts by finishing in the second spot in their respective group.
Australia locked horns with Argentina on December 3, while Japan will clash with Croatia and South Korea will face Brazil, both on December 5.