Asian Cup round-up: Cahill sinks China, Koreans reach semis

Sport360 staff 18:16 22/01/2015
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  • Match winner: Australia's Tim Cahill celebrates his second goal during the Asian Cup quarter-final football against China.

    Tim Cahill scored a brilliant bicycle-kick and a trademark header as Australia downed brave China 2-0 to reach the Asian Cup semi-finals on Thursday.

    – Mahdi Ali: UAE attacking flair can hurt Japan in quarters

    Cahill took his record tally of goals for Australia to 39, and few have been as important as his second-half strikes to put the hosts into the last four.

    It was a dour opening 45 minutes, with the game only coming to light four minutes after half time when Cahill worked his magic.

     China cleared the ball from a corner but only as far as Ivan Franjic, who put a looping header back into the box.

     An acrobatic Cahill met the cross with an overhead bicycle kick angled past Wang.

     Cahill then scored his second in the 65th minute when his pinpoint header from Jason Davidson's cross gave Wang no chance.

    South Korea's golden boy Son Heung-Min struck twice in extra time to give the Taeguk Warriors a 2-0 win over Uzbekistan in a nail-biting Asian Cup quarter-final on Thursday.

    The man dubbed "Sonaldo" by his team-mates scored with a diving header after 104 minutes and slammed home a second moments before the final whistle, leaving on a stretcher with exhaustion as the Koreans set up a meeting against either Iran or Iraq in the last four.

    South Korea's Son Heung-Min (R) wheels away in celebration after scoring in extra time against Uzbekistan.

    The Koreans continued to press throughout the game, a mazy run from Son taking him past three players only to be robbed by a last-ditch tackle as he prepared to pull the trigger.

    But as both teams began to wilt, Son popped up to glance Kim Jin-Su's dinked cross past Nesterov's despairing dive before collapsing to the turf with fatigue.

    Having broken the pain barrier just to reach extra time, Son capped a gutsy display by smashing home from close range, after a lung-busting charge down the right from substitute Cha Du-Ri, to leave the Uzbeks shattered.

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