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Sports / Football

Group stage in numbers

Published: 28 Jan 2024 - 11:42 am | Last Updated: 28 Jan 2024 - 11:53 am
Peninsula

The Peninsula

After 36 matches, 87 goals, and 16 teams booking their place in the next phase of the competition, the group stage action in the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023, which gave the supporters plenty to talk about over the past couple of weeks, came to an exciting conclusion last Thursday.

The Round of 16 action begins with Australia facing Indonesia at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium today, but with the dust just settling after the group fixtures, the-AFC.com reviews the group stage of the continental showpiece by taking a closer look at some of the key facts and stats that caught the eye.

A goal fest 
A total of 87 goals were scored in the 36 group stage matches across 14 days in the 18th edition of the AFC Asian Cup at an average of 2.4 goals per game. Matchday One produced the most goals at 37 with Jordan’s 4-0 win against Malaysia in their opener proving to be the biggest winning margin yet. Japan, South Korea and Iraq have scored the most goals at eight apiece while the Iran scored seven times as they progressed as Group C winners. 

Leading the charge
Iraq striker Aymen Hussein tops the goalscoring charts with five goals after the group stage. The 28-year-old sealed a 3-1 win over Indonesia for the Lions of Mesopotamia in their opener before hitting back-to-back braces in victories against four-time champions Japan and Vietnam. 
Qatar’s Akram Afif, Japan’s Ayase Ueda and Korea Republic’s Lee Kang-in trail Hussein having scored three goals each in the tournament. 

Pass masters
No player made more passes in the group stage than Australia centre-back Harry Souttar who attempted 314 passes with a success rate of 82.5 percent. South Korea midfielder Hwang In-beom comes in at second place with 271 passes and has a tournament-high 176 passes in the opposition half while Japan’s Wataru Endo is third with 269 passes. Among teams, South Korea have made the most passes so far at 2,099 passes followed by Japan (2,005) passes and Saudi Arabia (1,949)

Super savers 
United Arab Emirates goalkeeper Khalid Eisa made the most saves in the group stage with the Al Ain FC custodian making 12 stops, including denying Palestine’s Tamer Seyam from the penalty spot in a 1-1 draw on Matchday Two. Tajikistan’s Rustam Yatimov, Jordan’s Yazeed Abulaila, India’s Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Malaysia’s Syihan Hazmi finished joint second with 11 saves with Yatimov enjoying the best save percentage (85%) among them.

Brick walls
Hosts and defending champions Qatar and Thailand are the only two teams who did not concede a single goal in the group stage. While Qatar posted wins against Tajikistan, Lebanon and China, the Thais beat Kyrgyzstan 2-0 before holding Oman and Saudi Arabia to goalless draws and progressed. Australia, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and China all conceded just once and kept two clean sheets in their group stage outings. 

Creative fulcrums
South Korea duo Lee Kang-in and Lee Jae-sung led the chart when it came to creating chances with nine and eight chances respectively as the Taegeuk Warriors progressed to the last 16 as runners-up to Bahrain in Group E. 
Palestine captain Musab Al Battat also created eight chances – seven of which came from open play – and has so far bagged two assists for Makram Daboub’s side. 

Tough tacklers
Al Battat also attempted and won the most tackles during the group stage. The 30-year-old full-back made 18 tackles and won 12 of them while Korean attacking midfielder Lee Jae-sung won 10 of the 12 tackles he attempted. 
Indonesia’s Marselino Ferdinan took third place when it came to the number of successful tackles as he won half of the 16 tackles he attempted in the opening three matches.

Silky dribblers 
Salaah Al Yahyaei of Oman attempted and completed more dribbles than any other player during the group stage fixtures, attempting 29 and completing 18 at a success rate of 62 percent. 
Lee Kang-in came second, completing 12 of the 25 dribbles he attempted, while Australia’s Riley McGree, Jordan’s Ali Olwan and Hong Kong, China’s Everton Camargo all registered nine successful dribbles over the three group outings. 

Keep-ball
Korea Republic have enjoyed the most possession across the three matchdays, with a combined 73 percent possession from their matches against Bahrain, Jordan and Malaysia. 
Saudi Arabia are in second place with 70 percent possession while Japan (66%) are third. The Koreans were also the team that enjoyed the most possession in a single fixture as they saw an incredible 82 percent of the ball in the 3-3 draw with Malaysia. 

On top of things
Lebanon striker Omar Bugiel won the most duels in the group stage, coming out on top in 34 of the 64 duels he was involved in, with the AFC Wimbledon player winning 26 aerial duels. 
Oman’s Al Yahyaei and Hong Kong, China’s Matt Orr were joint second, winning 33 duels, with the latter topping the chart for successful aerial duels winning 30 of the 58 duels in the air.