Jordan will meet Tajikistan in the Asian Cup quarter-finals after scoring twice in three minutes deep in stoppage time to stun Iraq 3-2 in a thriller on Monday.
Jordan had a man advantage after the hugely controversial 77th-minute dismissal of Aymen Hussein but looked down and out in injury time, only for Yazan Al-Arab to prod in a 95th-minute leveller.
If that was hard to believe, better was to come two minutes later for Jordan when Nizar Al-Rashdan curled in from well outside the box to fire the underdogs into the last eight and spark wild celebrations.
Iraq’s heartbroken players were left flat-out on the turf, their dreams of repeating the country’s fairytale 2007 Asian Cup title somehow snatched from their grasp.
There were chaotic scenes in Iraq’s post-match press conference when angry Iraqi reporters confronted the team’s Spanish coach Jesus Casas, before security stepped in to usher them away.
“It pains me what happened,” the 50-year-old Casas, who has been Iraq coach since November 2022, said of the chaotic scenes.
Iraq’s football association said in a statement it felt “great dismay” at a “scene that was more painful than the undeserved exit of our team”.
“We denounce the blatant and abhorrent behaviour that occurred against the coach,” it said, promising “not to deal with these media personnel who seek to cause chaos”.
Jordan, who held South Korea 2-2 in the group phase, next face a Tajikistan side who are one of the surprise packages of the competition on their Asian Cup debut.
In Monday’s other last-16 game, hosts and holders Qatar face Palestine.
Jordan are ranked 24 places lower than Iraq but they were the better side in the first half in front of a 36,000 crowd at a raucous Khalifa International Stadium.
After going close on at least two occasions, Jordan deservedly took the lead in the first minute of injury time.
The Iraq defence sloppily presented Yazan Al-Naimat with the ball and he raced towards goal before chipping over a flailing and overworked goalkeeper Jalal Hassan.
Iraq, who defeated pre-tournament favourites Japan 2-1 in the group stage, went on the attack after the break.
The pressure paid off in the 68th minute when defender Saad Natiq nodded down and in from a corner for the equaliser.
Jordan went right up the other end and flashed an effort across goal, before unmarked striker Hussein controlled the ball in the box and lashed in to make it 2-1 in the 76th minute.
It was his sixth goal of the tournament but he was promptly given a second yellow card by Australian-based referee Alireza Faghani, having sat on the ground and mimicked what appeared to be eating.
It was the same celebration that Jordan’s players had done after their first goal earlier in the match – seemingly a reference to eating the country’s national dish of mansaf.
But Hussein’s celebration – which was very long – was apparently deemed as “excessive celebration” by Faghani, an offence which normally sees a yellow card when a player removes his shirt in celebration.
None of Jordan’s players appeared to be offended by Hussein’s celebration.
Iranian referee Faghani is one of the most respected referees in Asia, overseeing matches at multiple World Cups and Asian Cups, and has lived and worked in Australia since 2019.
Then came Jordan’s quickfire double at the death to leave Iraq reeling.
“We deserved to win … It’s impossible in a big tournament to play with only ten players,” Casas said.
“Of course the sending-off was the turning point,” he added. “I don’t understand how a referee can send a player off for celebrating.
“When this happened we had to make changes and this complicated our task.”
Casas added: “In any major tournament players always celebrate scoring. The referee cannot give a red card for this.
“We all saw Jordan celebrating the same way and no card was given.”
Jordan’s coach Hussein Ammouta agreed with Casas that the harsh dismissal changed the game.
“The second half belonged to them, they scored two goals and then had to continue with 10 players,” said the Moroccan.
