In addition to the Africa Cup, the Asia Cup is also currently taking place. And there the audience witnessed a real surprise in the round of 16.
Tajikistan caused a sensation at the Asian Cup. The football dwarf from Central Asia has reached the quarter-finals. The country, which is ranked 106th in the world behind countries like India and Mauritania, beat the United Arab Emirates (UAE for short) in a penalty shootout. It is the first time that Tajikistan has reached the quarter-finals of the Asian Championships.
National coach Petar Segrt’s team beat China and Lebanon in the group phase and finished second in Group A behind hosts Qatar.
Coach Petar Segrt is no stranger
Against the UAE it even looked like a win in regular time for a long time. Defender Vakhdat Khanonov gave the Tajiks the lead after 30 minutes. However, the opponent equalized in the fifth minute of injury time. Tajikistan then prevailed in the penalty shootout.
As a result, the players celebrated this historic success emotionally, some of them bursting into tears. Tajikistan’s next opponent is also not a top favorite for the title. The winner of the duel between Iraq and Jordan challenges coach Petar Segrt’s team.
By the way: Segrt is not an unknown name to some German football fans. The 57-year-old coached youth teams at VfL Bochum and MSV Duisburg in the 1990s. He then became assistant coach to Uwe Rapolder at Waldhof Mannheim. As a result, the Croatian went to the Georgian association, among others. Before joining Tajikistan, he worked as the national coach of Afghanistan and the Maldives.