DOHA (Reuters) – Iraq claimed Asia’s third guaranteed spot at the Paris Olympics on Thursday with a 2-1 extra-time win over Indonesia that secured them a third-place finish at the Under 23 Asian Cup in Qatar.
Ivar Jenner had given the lead to the Indonesians, who were looking to qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 1956, in the 19th minute with a low strike into the corner of Hussein Hasan’s goal.
But Zaid Tahseen’s close range header eight minutes later levelled the scores, and it took until the sixth minute of extra-time for either side to find a winner when Ali Jasim struck.
Iraq will join Japan and Uzbekistan at the Paris Games, while Indonesia retain one final chance to qualify when they take on Guinea in the French capital on May 9 in a playoff.
Japan and Uzbekistan qualified by winning their respective U23 Asian Cup semi-finals on Monday and the pair meet in the competition’s final in Doha on Friday.
(Reporting by Michael Church)
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