AFC Asian Cup Final 2024: Qatar’s central control conquers Jordan’s final third threat – tactical analysis

Qatar have successfully retained their AFC Asian Cup crown on home soil, overcoming a determined Jordan side by three goals to one in Saturday’s final.

Though the fact that Qatar’s three goals all came from the penalty spot may not leave us all with the most satisfaction after a final, there was a lot they did right from a tactical and technical perspective during the game that helped to ensure they came away from Saturday’s game with the trophy and winner’s medals.

This tactical analysis piece is going to highlight one element of coach Tintín Márquez’s tactics that successfully hindered their opponents throughout the context — their mid-high block pressing and its effectiveness at stifling Jordan’s ball progression into the final third.

Our analysis will also highlight how Jordan perhaps could’ve done a better job from a tactical and technical perspective, at times, with their ball progression in spite of their opponents’ out-of-possession organisation and energy.

Lineups and formations

Before getting into our analysis as described, we’ll run through each of our two teams’ respective lineups.

Tournament hosts Qatar lined up in something of a 4-2-3-1 shape with Meshaal Barsham in goal behind a back four consisting of right-back Tarek Salman, right centre-back Almahdi Ali Mukhtar, left centre-back Lucas Mendes and left-back Mohammed Waad.

Ahmed Fathi played as the left-sided holding midfielder with Jassem Gaber on the right behind Hassan Al-Haydos as the ‘10’, who featured in between left-winger (and hat-trick hero from the penalty spot) Akram Afif and right-winger Yousuf Abdurisag. Finally, Almoez Ali led the line from the centre-forward position.

As far as substitutions go, Qatar made four of them over the 90 minutes, the first two of which came in the 53rd minute. Abdulaziz Hatem replaced Al-Haydos in attacking midfield, while Ali Asad was introduced at the right-sided holding midfield position in place of Gaber.

Another 10 minutes into the second half, Ismail Mohamad came on at right-wing in place of Abdurisag, and Qatar’s final change occurred in the 81st minute when Boualem Khoukhi came on for Almahdi Ali Mukhtar in the centre of defence.

As for Hussein Ammouta’s Jordan side, the 54-year-old former Al Sadd SC boss set his team up in a 3-4-3 shape with Yazeed Abulaila in goal behind a back three of Abdallah Nasib on the right, Yazan Al-Arab in the middle and Salem Al-Ajalin on the left.

Ihsan Haddad started at right wing-back opposite Mahmoud Al-Mardi, who provided width on the left. At the same time, Nizar Al-Rashdan played at left central midfield alongside his partner in the middle, Noor Al-Rawabdeh.

In attack, Ammouta went for Musa Al-Taamari of Ligue 1’s Montpellier on the right, Yazan Al-Naimat — who scored Jordan’s only goal of the game — in the centre and Ali Olwan on the left.

The tournament runners-up made just two changes during the game, the first being the replacement of Al-Mardi at left wing-back with Saleh Rateb, a more attack-minded player, in the 80th minute. After that, in the dying moments of the game Anas Al Awadat came on as a stoppage time substitute for Olwan in attack, but that change was not enough to make a difference so late on.

Jordan’s final third threat

Jordan posed a considerable threat to Qatar once in the final third. Despite losing by three goals to one, the runners-up generated a far higher non-penalty xG (1.86) than the champions (0.22). When they made it into the chance creation phase, they were very likely to successfully get the ball into a decent goalscoring area and have a pop — and this rang true even when they were dispossessed in the final third thanks to their top-notch counterpressing and Qatar’s struggles to clear the ball effectively.

Turning our attention to figure 1 above, we can see an example of Jordan forcing a turnover in the final third via their aggressive and energetic counterpress.

Qatar liked to try and play through the thirds even after just winning the ball back and being on the edge of their box. This played into Jordan’s hands to an extent, as Ammouta’s side excelled in transition and were set up very well to force high turnovers when the opposition were in possession inside their own third, whether that was via a regular high press in a settled phase of play or in a transitional phase, the latter of which we see above.