The hosts will face the winner of Tuesday\u2019s last-16 meeting between Uzbekistan and Thailand
\nDOHA
\nHosts and holders Qatar fought back to defeat Palestine 2-1 and reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals on Monday, joining a Jordan side who struck twice in injury time to stun Iraq.
\nQatar will face the winner of Tuesday\u2019s last-16 meeting between Uzbekistan and Thailand, the lowest-ranked team left in Doha at 113 in the world.
\nA young girl in the crowd at the tent-like Al-Bayt Stadium north of Doha held up a sign that said \u201cSorry Palestine\u201d after the final whistle.
\nPalestine coach Makram Daboub said he was proud of his \u201cchampions\u201d as their best Asian Cup came to an end in the last 16.
\nPalestine were playing in the knockout rounds for the first time and, against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, took a surprise first-half lead.
\nFresh from beating Hong Kong 3-0 for their first win in the competition\u2019s history, Palestine made a bright start and Oday Dabbagh fired them ahead on 37 minutes.
\nHe and his team-mates celebrated by crossing their raised arms in a handcuffs gesture to symbolise the plight of the Palestinian people.
\nQatar had failed to settle in front of an expectant home crowd and the Palestinians, ranked 99 to the hosts\u2019 58, were dreaming of making more history by advancing against the odds.
\nBut captain Hassan Al-Haydos came to Qatar\u2019s rescue on the stroke of half-time when he rammed the ball past goalkeeper Rami Hamada after a corner was neatly cut back to him by Akram Afif.
\nFour minutes after the break Afif scored his fourth goal of the tournament, from the penalty spot, and Qatar cruised through the rest of the match.
\nDaboub said his players \u201cgave everything despite the very difficult circumstances\u201d.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t ask any more of them — they have honoured Palestinian football,\u201d he said.
\nThe attendance of more than 60,000 meant this 18th edition is already the most-watched Asian Cup with 1.06 million people through the turnstiles so far, beating the 1.04 million who attended in China in 2004.
\nJordan will meet Tajikistan in the quarter-finals after scoring twice in three minutes deep in stoppage time to beat Iraq 3-2.
\nThere were chaotic scenes in Iraq\u2019s post-match press conference when angry Iraqi reporters confronted the team\u2019s Spanish coach Jesus Casas, before security stepped in to usher them away.
\n\u201cIt pains me what happened,\u201d Casas said of the incident.
\nJordan had a man advantage after the 77th-minute dismissal of Aymen Hussein — booked for celebrating — but looked down and out in injury time, only for Yazan Al-Arab to prod in a 95th-minute leveller.
\nIf that was hard to believe, better was to come two minutes later for Jordan when Nizar Al-Rashdan curled in from outside the box to fire the underdogs into the last eight and spark wild celebrations.
\nIraq\u2019s heartbroken players were left flat-out on the turf, their dreams of repeating the country\u2019s fairytale 2007 Asian Cup title somehow snatched from their grasp.
\nJordan\u2019s coach Hussein Ammouta agreed with Casas that the harsh dismissal of Hussein for a second yellow card for over-celebrating what he thought was Iraq\u2019s winner changed the game.
\n\u201cThe second half belonged to them, they scored two goals and then had to continue with 10 players,\u201d said the Moroccan.
\nJordan, 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.
\nOn Tuesday, Jurgen Klinsmann\u2019s South Korea play Roberto Mancini\u2019s Saudi Arabia for the right to face Australia in the last eight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The hosts will face the winner of Tuesday\u2019s last-16 meeting between Uzbekistan and Thailand DOHA Hosts and holders Qatar fought back to defeat Palestine 2-1 and reach the Asian Cup quarter-finals on Monday, joining a Jordan side who struck twice in injury time to stun Iraq. Qatar will face the winner of Tuesday\u2019s last-16 meeting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":384294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-384279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n