Asian Cup Group stages took a dramatic turn as Palestine defeated Hong Kong 3-0 in Group C to qualify for the Round of 16 for the first time. Palestine striker Odday Dabbagh scored a crucial brace for the war-stricken footballing nation.
This was Palestine’s maiden victory as well in the history of the Asian Cup and they finished as one of the four best ‘third-ranked’ teams in the competition.
Before the game, Hong Kong had not won any match in the AFC Asian Cup, they had gone without a win for 12 matches, whereas Palestine had not tasted victory for 8 games.
Left winger Zaid Qunbar also scored a goal in the 48th minute to double the lead for Palestine, the game had been sealed by the hour mark against Hong Kong.
Palestine football’s historic victory in Doha comes against the backdrop of the current ongoing genocide in Gaza by Israel.
Captain Musab Al Battat said in a post-match press conference, “Thank you to the fans who are coming to support Palestine and the national team of Palestine. Thank you from our heart.”
“We will do our best to put a smile on the people.” He added further.
There was massive support for the Palestinean football team, as 6,568 people inside the Abdullah Bin Khalifa Stadium were almost entirely supporting Palestine.
On the other hand, Syria also qualified for the knockout stages for the first time in their history after they defeated India by a 1-0 margin, whereas in the same group Australia and Uzbekistan drew 1-1 in a nail-biting match.
Omar Khribin scored the winner in the 76th minute for Syria to give them the lead and the Syrian side held their nerves against India to get a pivotal victory in their Asian Cup History.
Syria’s Argentine head coach Hector Cuper said after the game, “We played the game with one aim in our mind, to win, and we managed to do that and we will not stop here.”
The Indian manager Igor Stimac looked positive after the game, despite suffering three losses and scoring no goals and he stated, “We will take good lessons from here when we go back home, it was a learning experience for the boys,” he said, having seen his team beaten 2-0 by Australia and 3-0 by Uzbekistan.
Meanwhile, Iran defeated UAE in the other group match by 2-1, Mehdi Taremi scored a brace for Iran to seal 9 points, which means that Iran is unscathed in the group stage with a maximum points tally. United Arab Emirates finished second in Group C with four points.
Here are the Group B and Group C standings of AFC Asian Cup
Group B:
| Team | W | D | L | Pts |
| Australia | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Uzbekistan | 1 | 2 | 0 | 5 |
| Syria | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| India | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
Group C
| Team | W | D | L | Pts |
| Iran | 3 | 0 | 0 | 9 |
| UAE | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Palestine | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Hong Kong | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 |