The youth team of Turkmenistan lost in the quarterfinals of the 2022 Asian Cup (under 23) football team of Australia. The game ended with the score 0:1.
The fate of the meeting was decided by an unfortunate own goal by Oraz Orazov in the 74th minute. He cut the ball with his head into his own net after a canopy from the Australians.
The Australian national team in the semi-finals of the Youth Asian Cup 2022 will play with the winner of the pair Saudi Arabia-Vietnam.
Turkmen football players completed their performance at the tournament, having achieved the best result in the youth continental championships in recent history. The national team of Turkmenistan has never participated in the Youth Asian Cup before. For the first time in history, the youth teams of Turkmenistan was able to reach the playoffs of the tournament.
At the 2022 Asian Cup, the Turkmen team achieved a better result than some of the traditional favorites of the tournament. Thus, the teams of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Iran could not leave the group.
In total, the national team of Turkmenistan played four games at the tournament. First with a minimum score of 0:1 the Turkmen team lost to the favorite of the tournament – the team of Uzbekistan, and then left the strongest teams of Iran and Qatar behind the playoffs, sensationally defeating the Iranians – 2:1 and playing with the Qataris in a draw – 2:2. As a result, Turkmenistan became the third debutant in the history of the tournament to reach the playoffs, following in the footsteps of Malaysia and Palestine, who accomplished the feat in 2018.
