Iraq beat S.Korea on pens, reach Asian Cup final

KUALA LUMPUR, July 25 (Reuters) Iraq reached their first Asian Cup final today night, beating South Korea 4-3 on penalties in a pulsating semi-final that ended goalless after extra time.

Noor Sabri was Iraq's hero when he saved Korea's fourth spot-kick from Yeom Ki-hun. After Ahmed Menajed had made it 4-3 to the West Asians, Korean Kim Jung-woo hit the post to send the Iraqi players into raptures.

It was the vanquished side's second penalty shootout in four days, having overcome Iran 4-2 in Sunday's quarter-final after another goalless 120 minutes.

Iraq will meet either Saudi Arabia or Japan in Sunday's final in Jakarta. They play later today night in Hanoi.

The Iraqis went into today's match in confident mood having topped qualifying Group A in which they beat a fancied Australia.

Korea, who last won the Asian Cup in 1960, were runners-up in Group D behind Saudi Arabia, but had shown great resilience in overcoming Iran in the quarters.

Pim Verbeek's team produced their performance of the tournament against Iraq, but again their three-man attack failed to produce a goal for the second straight match.

BRILLIANT SKILLS Showing brilliant individual skills, Iraq dominated the first half but 2002 World Cup semi-finalists Korea hit back strongly after the break, though they wasted several chances to knock Iraq out of their stride.

Despite weary legs tiring further on a sodden pitch, both sides continued to work hard in extra time and their willingness to attack resulted in tense goalmouth action at both ends.

Iraq had a great chance to snatch it in the 104th minute when Hawar Mulla Mohammed found himself in front of an open goal but his shot crashed against the inside of Lee Woon-jae's right-hand post before being cleared.

Nine minutes later, Mulla whipped in a volley from a narrow angle across Lee's goal but noone was there to apply the killer touch and, after 120 minutes of attacking soccer had failed to produce a goal, the teams were ushered to the penalty spot for the shootout.

It was 3-3 when Noor dived to his left to save from Yeom.

The pressure was then on Kim after Menajed had scored for Iran, but the Nagoya Grampus Eight midfielder slammed his shot against the post to hand victory to a jubilant Iraq.

REUTERS BJR RN1945