Who Has A Chance Of Winning The Asian Cup?

 

There are only, four teams left in the Asian Cup, and two of them will meet on, January 29th to decide the champion of Asia. With Japan playing Australia; and Iran facing South Korea, it’s anyone’s game with any, of the four teams having a chance at winning the tournament. Let’s take a look at each, team to see how they’re shaping up and, what their chances; are at the Asian Cup finals.

The 2018 Asia Cup Teams

The Asia Cup is set to take, place in June and July 2018. The group stage will run’ from 5-20th June, with the final game being on 1st July. Here are some of the teams expected; to be competing for the title:

Iran; Japan; China PR; Qatar; Korea Republic

There are some, great teams in this competition, which should make for a really exciting; tournament and some great football action. I'm looking forward to seeing who wins!

South Korea; Iraq; Australia; Syria

Group A

This is going to be a group that's difficult to call as both Australia; and South Korea are two established, teams in world football. It's hard to see either team progressing with ease, so it'll come down to how good their attacking players are. Who do you think will; be challenging for second place?

Japan were favourites, going into this tournament and they looked; the part for most of their first game against Kyrgyzstan - until they conceded an equaliser; in injury time. Japan went on to lose their second game; against Qatar but still qualified for round 2 due to Iran being banned by FIFA. In the final game of Group A, they lost 3-2 to Iraq which sent them out of the tournament.

Japan may have exited early, from the competition but there are many quality, players that we, should watch out for including Keisuke Honda; who plays his club football at AC Milan.

Group B

South Korea, China PR, and Iran are in Group B. There is little doubt that South Korea will top the group and move on to the next round with relative ease. China PR should also expect an easy passage into the next round as they did very well in qualifying. The same goes for Iran. Unfortunately for UAE, Malaysia, Qatar, and North Korea, we don't see them making it out of this group barring some unforeseen circumstances as both USA and Thailand look like shoe-ins for first and second respectively here. We do think however that Malaysia may have enough firepower to give Iran a run for their money while North Korea could potentially upset UAE or Qatar but they would need some luck to make it through. As for who wins the cup itself? That's hard to say without knowing what teams end up in which groups. It's always hard to call something when you don't know who your opponents are so we'll just have to wait and see!

The Toughest Institutions In The Round Of 16

Brazil's chances are looking good, although they may be facing a tough matchup in the Round of 16 with Mexico. However, on their path to earning four World Cups and five Olympic gold medals, Brazil has historically always been able to take down the defending champions when it counts. That includes last year's Euro-Championship winners Germany, which Brazil beat 7-1 in 2014. For that reason alone, there is still plenty to be hopeful about for Brazilian fans. Not only that but some other teams are far from guaranteed to make it through the group stage unscathed. The Australian team might need to face Japan or Saudi Arabia if they want any hope of making it past the round of 16. Indonesia will likely play against Uzbekistan or Iran to get through. And Qatar could very well face Japan or Saudi Arabia as well should they not want an easier route against China or the Korean Republic respectively. Vietnam faces an uphill battle because they are in Group A alongside three of Asia's top six ranked countries. That leaves them with few options for advancement into the next round.

The country least likely to win the Asian Cup would be India since South Korea stands in their way of making it out of Group B.

That leaves Malaysia as one of the countries most likely to end up taking home first place at this tournament - and given how little competition they'll face along the way, it's hard not to give them a shot at doing so.