2019 AFC Asian Cup Group B

Group B of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup took place from 6 to 15 January 2019. ^[1] The group consisted of defending champions Australia, Syria, Palestine, and Jordan. ^[2] The top two teams, Jordan and Australia, advanced to the round of 16. ^[3]

Teams

Draw position	Team	Zone	Method of qualification	Date of qualification	Finals appearance	Last appearance	Previous best performance	FIFA Rankings
								April 2018 [nb 1]	December 2018
B1	Australia	AFF	Second round group B winners	29 March 2016	4th	2015 (winners)	Winners (2015)	40	41
B2	Syria	WAFF	Second round group E runners-up (2nd best runners-up)	29 March 2016	6th	2011 (group stage)	Group stage (1980, 1984, 1988, 1996, 2011)	76	74
B3	Palestine	WAFF	Third Round Group D runners-up	10 October 2017	2nd	2015 (group stage)	Group stage (2015)	83	99
B4	Jordan	WAFF	Third Round Group C winners	14 November 2017	4th	2015 (group stage)	Quarter-finals (2004, 2011)	117	109

Notes

1. The rankings of April 2018 were used for seeding for the final draw.

Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Jordan	3	2	1	0	3	0	+3	7	Advance to knockout stage
2	Australia	3	2	0	1	6	3	+3	6
3	Palestine	3	0	2	1	0	3	−3	2
4	Syria	3	0	1	2	2	5	−3	1

Source: AFC
Rules for classification: Group stage tiebreakers

In the round of 16:

• The winners of Group B, Jordan, advanced to play the third-placed team of Group D, Vietnam.
• The runners-up of Group B, Australia, advanced to play the runners-up of Group F, Uzbekistan.

Matches

All times listed are GST (UTC+4).

Australia vs Jordan

Jordan players celebrating after the match

With 10 minutes on the clock, Musa Al-Taamari turned in the area, only to shoot across the face of the goal. Robbie Kruse’s through ball found Awer Mabil, whose first-time shot was kept out by Amer Shafi. At 26 minutes, Baha' Abdel-Rahman’s corner found Anas Bani Yaseen who powered his header beyond Mathew Ryan. Minutes later Jordan almost doubled their lead after Trent Sainsbury’s foul on Al-Taamari provided Abdel-Rahman the opportunity to go for goal from the edge of the area, only for Ryan to tip the free-kick onto the crossbar. ^[4] Australia were denied a penalty for Feras Shelbaieh's apparent handball shortly before the break. ^[5] Early in the second half, Mabil drove a low ball across the face of goal that Shafi pushed to the feet of one of his own defenders, while Tom Rogic’s dipping shot from range was also beaten away by the goalkeeper. At the other end, Yaseen Al-Bakhit’s long range drive was just off target moments after beating two defenders and seeing the ball out for a corner. Twelve minutes from time, Mabil saw his low drive come back off the base of Shafi’s left upright while substitute Jackson Irvine headed wide three minutes later. Australia continued to push and Shafi was forced into action in the final seconds of the game as Jordan recorded a historic result. ^[6]

6 January 2019 (2019-01-06)

15:00

Australia	0–1	Jordan
	Report	Bani Yaseen 26'

Hazza bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain

Attendance: 4,934

Referee: Ahmed Al-Kaf (Oman)

Australia

Jordan

GK 1 Mathew Ryan RB 19 Josh Risdon  46' CB 2 Milos Degenek CB 20 Trent Sainsbury  28' LB 16 Aziz Behich CM 5 Mark Milligan (c) CM 8 Massimo Luongo  74' RW 21 Awer Mabil AM 23 Tom Rogic LW 10 Robbie Kruse  55' CF 9 Jamie Maclaren Substitutions: DF 4 Rhyan Grant  46' FW 15 Chris Ikonomidis  55' MF 22 Jackson Irvine  74' Manager: Graham Arnold

GK 1 Amer Shafi (c) RB 2 Feras Shelbaieh CB 3 Tareq Khattab CB 19 Anas Bani Yaseen LB 21 Salem Al-Ajalin CM 4 Baha' Abdel-Rahman CM 6 Saeed Murjan  90' RW 7 Yousef Al-Rawashdeh AM 11 Yaseen Al-Bakhit  88' LW 13 Khalil Bani Attiah CF 18 Musa Al-Taamari  51'  72' Substitutions: FW 9 Baha' Faisal  72' FW 14 Ahmad Ersan  88' MF 10 Ahmed Samir  90' Manager: Vital Borkelmans

Man of the Match: Anas Bani Yaseen (Jordan) Assistant referees: [7] Abu Bakar Al-Amri (Oman) Rashid Al-Ghaithi (Oman) Fourth official: Taleb Al-Marri (Qatar) Additional assistant referees: Abdulrahman Al-Jassim (Qatar) Khamis Al-Marri (Qatar)

Syria vs Palestine

Syrian fans before the match

Omar Al Somah’s run down the left caught Palestine off guard and his cross found Omar Kharbin in the area who fired his effort wide. Syria almost took the lead after seven minutes, when Palestine custodian Rami Hamadeh lost the ball in the area only for Kharbin to see his close-range effort cleared off the line by Abdullah Jaber. ^[8] Syria continued to pile the pressure on Palestine as Hamadeh was called into action in the 29th minute when he produced an acrobatic save to deny Kharbin's header. Syria then suffered a blow in the 39th minute when Osama Omari was stretchered off the pitch after picking up an injury and replaced by Youssef Kalfa. With a minute left in the half, Syria were given another opportunity but Al Somah couldn’t convert his free-kick as the score remained 0–0 at half-time. Palestine went down to 10 men after Mohammed Saleh picked up his second yellow card in the 68th minute. However, Syria failed to capitalise on their one-man advantage, and both the teams settled for a share of the points. ^[9]

6 January 2019 (2019-01-06)

20:00

Syria	0–0	Palestine
	Report

Sharjah Stadium, Sharjah

Attendance: 8,471

Referee: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan)

Syria

Palestine

GK 1 Ibrahim Alma RB 2 Ahmad Al Saleh CB 4 Jehad Al Baour CB 15 Abdul Malek Al Anizan LB 3 Moayad Ajan CM 14 Tamer Haj Mohamad  76'  81' CM 18 Zaher Midani  73' RW 11 Osama Omari  41' AM 7 Omar Kharbin LW 21 Fahd Youssef CF 9 Omar Al Somah (c) Substitutions: MF 17 Youssef Kalfa  41' MF 10 Mohammed Osman  73' MF 16 Ahmed Ashkar  90+2'  81' Manager: Bernd Stange

GK 22 Rami Hamadeh RB 7 Musab Al-Battat  59' CB 4 Mohammed Saleh  43'  68' CB 15 Abdelatif Bahdari (c) LB 14 Abdullah Jaber RM 23 Mohammed Darweesh CM 8 Jonathan Cantillana  5'  76' CM 9 Tamer Seyam CM 17 Pablo Tamburrini  64' LM 10 Sameh Maraaba CF 11 Yashir Islame  82' Substitutions: DF 21 Alexis Norambuena  64' MF 6 Shadi Shaban  76' FW 19 Mahmoud Wadi  82' Manager: Noureddine Ould Ali

Man of the Match: Abdelatif Bahdari (Palestine) Assistant referees: [7] Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (Uzbekistan) Jakhongir Saidov (Uzbekistan) Fourth official: Sergei Grishchenko (Kyrgyzstan) Additional assistant referees: Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan) Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)

Jordan vs Syria

The opener came in the 26th minute when Yaseen Al-Bakhit cut the ball back from the left to Yousef Al-Rawashdeh and his low driven centre was steered home at pace by Musa Al-Taamari. Three minutes later Jordan came close to score their second as Al-Bakhit found Al-Taamari, only for his effort to bounce off the turf before clearing the crossbar. The second goal came two minutes before the interval, Baha' Abdel-Rahman’s short corner to Al-Taamari was whipped into the area and Tareq Khattab held off the Syrian defence to head home at the near post. Omar Kharbin headed just over the bar five minutes after the restart before shooting straight at Amer Shafi six minutes later. Kharbin was involved again in the 71st minute as the Jordanian defence made an error to gift him the ball 25 yards from goal, but this time Shafi was on hand to save, doing just enough to divert his shot wide of the left post. Jordan came close to score late as both Saeed Murjan and Ahmad Ersan narrowly missed. ^[10] The Syrian coach Bernd Stange was sacked after this match, and replaced with former manager Fajr Ibrahim. ^[11]

10 January 2019 (2019-01-10)

17:30

Jordan	2–0	Syria
Al-Taamari 26' Khattab 43'	Report

Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain

Attendance: 9,152

Referee: Kim Dong-jin (South Korea)

Jordan

Syria

GK 1 Amer Shafi (c) RB 2 Feras Shelbaieh CB 19 Anas Bani Yaseen CB 21 Salem Al-Ajalin LB 3 Tareq Khattab RM 7 Yousef Al-Rawashdeh  52' CM 4 Baha' Abdel-Rahman CM 6 Saeed Murjan LM 13 Khalil Bani Attiah CF 11 Yaseen Al-Bakhit CF 18 Musa Al-Taamari  80'  85' Substitutions: MF 10 Ahmed Samir  52' FW 14 Ahmad Ersan  85' Manager: Vital Borkelmans

GK 1 Ibrahim Alma RB 2 Ahmad Al Saleh CB 21 Fahd Youssef  70' CB 4 Jehad Al Baour  80'  82' LB 3 Moayad Ajan RM 15 Abdul Malek Al Anizan  33' CM 14 Tamer Haj Mohamad CM 10 Mohammed Osman LM 19 Mardik Mardikian  2'  46' CF 7 Omar Kharbin CF 9 Omar Al Somah (c) Substitutions: MF 8 Mahmoud Al-Mawas  46' MF 17 Youssef Kalfa  70' MF 20 Khaled Mobayed  82' Manager: Bernd Stange

Man of the Match: Tareq Khattab (Jordan) Assistant referees: [12] Yoon Kwang-yeol (South Korea) Park Sang-jun (South Korea) Fourth official: Yaser Tulefat (Bahrain) Additional assistant referees: Nawaf Shukralla (Bahrain) Ko Hyung-jin (South Korea)

Palestine vs Australia

Jamie Maclaren headed in from Tom Rogic's cross to score his first international goal and give the holders a 1–0 lead in the 18th minute. Two minutes later, Australia doubled their lead when Awer Mabil found his way in behind the defence to side-foot home an angled pass from Chris Ikonomidis. Mabil was teed up by Maclaren in the dying moments of the first half, only for the winger to blaze his effort high and wide from close range. An attempted 54th-minute cross from Rhyan Grant caught the woodwork after a heavy deflection off Abdullah Jaber, while Palestine's Musab Al-Battat made a defensive intervention moments later. Australia sealed their win in the 90th minute, with substitute Apostolos Giannou rising high to head home an Ikonomidis cross following an Australian set-piece. ^[13]

11 January 2019 (2019-01-11)

15:00

Palestine	0–3	Australia
	Report	Maclaren 18' Mabil 20' Giannou 90'

Rashid Stadium, Dubai

Attendance: 11,915

Referee: Valentin Kovalenko (Uzbekistan)

Palestine

Australia

GK 22 Rami Hamadeh RB 7 Musab Al-Battat CB 15 Abdelatif Bahdari (c) CB 21 Alexis Norambuena LB 14 Abdullah Jaber CM 19 Mahmoud Wadi  77' CM 23 Mohammed Darweesh RW 6 Shadi Shaban AM 20 Nazmi Albadawi  71' LW 9 Tamer Seyam CF 8 Jonathan Cantillana  35'  57' Substitutions: MF 18 Oday Dabbagh  57' MF 3 Mohammed Bassim  71' FW 12 Khaled Salem  77' Manager: Noureddine Ould Ali

GK 1 Mathew Ryan RB 4 Rhyan Grant CB 2 Milos Degenek CB 20 Trent Sainsbury  83' LB 16 Aziz Behich CM 5 Mark Milligan (c) CM 22 Jackson Irvine RW 21 Awer Mabil  87' AM 23 Tom Rogic  56'  75' LW 15 Chris Ikonomidis CF 9 Jamie Maclaren  82' Substitutions: MF 8 Massimo Luongo  75' FW 14 Apostolos Giannou  82' FW 10 Robbie Kruse  87' Manager: Graham Arnold

Man of the Match: Awer Mabil (Australia) Assistant referees: [14] Abdukhamidullo Rasulov (Uzbekistan) Jakhongir Saidov (Uzbekistan) Fourth official: Mohamed Salman (Bahrain) Additional assistant referees: Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan) Ilgiz Tantashev (Uzbekistan)

Australia vs Syria

Awer Mabil after scoring Australia's first goal

Chris Ikonomidis found the hands of Ibrahim Alma with his long range attempt before the Syrian keeper twice denied Jamie Maclaren. In the 41st minute, Awer Mabil's curling strike arced its way inside the keeper’s right post. The lead was to last less than two minutes, however, as Moayad Ajan seared down the left flank beyond Rhyan Grant and sent in a cross that Omar Kharbin headed goalward. Mathew Ryan made the initial save, but Kharbin converted the rebound. Nine minutes after the restart, Australia were back in front. Tom Rogic’s ball from the left slid past Hussein Jwayed to land at the feet of Ikonomidis, who steered his effort over the line. Substitute Apostolos Giannou then hit the post 15 minutes from time, and five minutes later Syria were level after the referee pointed to the spot and Omar Al Somah converted. Three minutes into added time, Rogic gave Australia the win after he scored with an effort from distance. ^[15] For Syria, this defeat meant they had not progressed from the group stage for the sixth consecutive AFC Asian Cup.

15 January 2019 (2019-01-15)

17:30

Australia	3–2	Syria
Mabil 41' Ikonomidis 54' Rogic 90+3'	Report	Kharbin 43' Al Somah 80' (pen.)

Khalifa bin Zayed Stadium, Al Ain

Attendance: 10,492

Referee: César Ramos (Mexico)

Australia

Syria

GK 1 Mathew Ryan RB 4 Rhyan Grant CB 2 Milos Degenek CB 5 Mark Milligan (c) LB 16 Aziz Behich CM 22 Jackson Irvine CM 8 Massimo Luongo  62'  90+1' RW 21 Awer Mabil  82' AM 23 Tom Rogic LW 15 Chris Ikonomidis CF 9 Jamie Maclaren  68' Substitutions: FW 14 Apostolos Giannou  68' FW 10 Robbie Kruse  82' DF 6 Matthew Jurman  90+1' Manager: Graham Arnold

GK 1 Ibrahim Alma RB 12 Hussein Jwayed  74' CB 5 Omar Midani CB 2 Ahmad Al Saleh (c) LB 3 Moayad Ajan RM 8 Mahmoud Al-Mawas  59' CM 14 Tamer Haj Mohamad CM 20 Khaled Mobayed  83' LM 7 Omar Kharbin AM 10 Mohammed Osman  72' CF 9 Omar Al Somah Substitutions: MF 21 Fahd Youssef  72' DF 15 Abdul Malek Al Anizan  74' MF 18 Zaher Midani  83' Manager: Fajr Ibrahim

Man of the Match: Tom Rogic (Australia) Assistant referees: [16] Miguel Hernández (Mexico) Alberto Morín (Mexico) Fourth official: Palitha Hemathunga (Sri Lanka) Additional assistant referees: Liu Kwok Man (Hong Kong) Khamis Al-Marri (Qatar)

Palestine vs Jordan

Palestine came close to breaking the deadlock in the 17th minute when Amer Shafi produced a fingertip save to keep out Abdelatif Bahdari’s flicked attempt from a Tamer Seyam corner. Baha' Abdel-Rahman then flashed a shot inches over the bar from distance, before, in the final moments of the first half, Shafi punched clear with striker Mahmoud Wadi lurking. Six minutes after the restart, Oday Dabbagh failed to find the target with a header from Musab Al-Battat’s delivery. Moments later, Bahdari’s header from another Seyam set-piece was gathered on his line by Shafi, and Ahmad Ersan’s 68th minute shot at the other end was saved by Rami Hamadeh. ^[17]

15 January 2019 (2019-01-15)

17:30

Palestine	0–0	Jordan
	Report

Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi

Attendance: 20,843

Referee: Mohanad Qassim (Iraq)

Palestine

Jordan

GK 22 Rami Hamadeh RB 3 Mohammed Bassim  88' CB 15 Abdelatif Bahdari (c) CB 7 Musab Al-Battat LB 14 Abdullah Jaber RM 18 Oday Dabbagh CM 23 Mohammed Darweesh  79' CM 4 Mohammed Saleh LM 9 Tamer Seyam  19' AM 11 Yashir Islame  62' CF 19 Mahmoud Wadi  88' Substitutions: FW 12 Khaled Salem  62' MF 20 Nazmi Albadawi  79' DF 21 Alexis Norambuena  88' Manager: Noureddine Ould Ali

GK 1 Amer Shafi (c) RB 2 Feras Shelbaieh CB 3 Tareq Khattab CB 19 Anas Bani Yaseen  54' LB 23 Ihsan Haddad CM 13 Khalil Bani Attiah CM 4 Baha' Abdel-Rahman RW 14 Ahmad Ersan  82' AM 6 Saeed Murjan  25'  63' LW 11 Yaseen Al-Bakhit CF 10 Ahmed Samir Substitutions: FW 20 Odai Khadr  63' MF 16 Saleh Rateb  82' Manager: Vital Borkelmans

Man of the Match: Ahmed Samir (Jordan) Assistant referees: [16] Taleb Al-Marri (Qatar) Saud Al-Maqaleh (Qatar) Fourth official: Yoon Kwang-yeol (South Korea) Additional assistant referees: Ali Sabah (Iraq) Khamis Al-Kuwari (Qatar)

Discipline

Fair play points were used as tiebreakers if the head-to-head and overall records of teams were tied (and if a penalty shoot-out was not applicable as a tiebreaker). These were calculated based on yellow and red cards received in all group matches as follows: ^{[3] [18]}

• yellow card = 1 point
• red card as a result of two yellow cards = 3 points
• direct red card = 3 points
• yellow card followed by direct red card = 4 points

Only one of the above deductions was applied to a player in a single match.

Team	Match 1				Match 2				Match 3				Points
Australia	1				2				1				−4
Jordan	1				1				2				−4
Syria	2				3				1				−6
Palestine	2	1			1				2				−8

References

1. "Match Schedule – AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019" (PDF). the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. 7 May 2018. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
2. "Final Draw sets the stage for thrilling contests in UAE 2019". the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. 4 May 2018. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
3. "AFC Asian Cup 2019 Competition Regulations" (PDF). the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. Retrieved 4 May 2018.
4. Adno, Carly (6 January 2019). "Defending Asian Cup champions Australia were beaten 1–0 by Jordan". Fox Sports Asia . Retrieved 6 January 2019.
5. Dorman, Matt (6 January 2019). "Champions stunned in Group B opener". Goal . Retrieved 6 January 2019.
6. "Australia 0–1 Jordan". AFC. 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
7. "MATCH OFFICIALS FOR JANUARY 5 & 6". the-afc.com. Asian Football Confederation. Retrieved 5 January 2019.
8. Rajan, Adwaldh (6 January 2019). "10-man Palestine hold Syria to goalless draw in Group B". Fox Sports Asia. Archived from the original on 7 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
9. "Syria 0–0 Palestine". AFC. 6 January 2019. Retrieved 6 January 2019.
10. "Jordan 2–0 Syria". AFC. 10 January 2019. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
11. "Asian Cup news: Syria sack Stange after Jordan loss". FOX Sports Asia. 11 January 2019. Archived from the original on 15 April 2019. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
12. "MATCH OFFICIALS FOR JANUARY 10". AFC. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
13. "Palestine 0–3 Australia". AFC. 11 January 2019. Archived from the original on 11 July 2019. Retrieved 11 January 2019.
14. "MATCH OFFICIALS FOR JANUARY 11". AFC. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
15. "Australia 3–2 Syria". AFC. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
16. "MATCH OFFICIALS FOR JANUARY 15". AFC. Retrieved 15 January 2019.
17. "Palestine 0–0 Jordan". AFC. 15 January 2019. Retrieved 16 January 2019.
18. "Competition Operations Manual 2019". AFC.

External links

• Official website