Doha: Jordan will meet Korea Republic in the quarter-finals of the AFC U23 Championship after a 0-0 draw with Australia yesterday evening took Jamal Ahmad’s side into the last eight at the expense of the Olyroos.

The draw means Jordan finish in second place in Group D behind the United Arab Emirates who took top spot thanks to a 3-2 win over Vietnam in the other game in the group.

Jordan coach Jamal Ahmad made two changes to the team that drew 0-0 with the United Arab Emirates in their previous game replacing Yousef Raed with Mohannad Al Souliman while Mahmoud Al Mardi took Saleh Ratib’s place.

Australia meanwhile switched four from the team that handed Vietnam a 2-0 defeat on Match day Two with Cameron Burgess Joshua Brilliante goalkeeper Aaron Lennox and Stefan Mauk coming in at the expense of Jack Duncan Thomas Deng Ryan Edwards and Andrew Hoole.

With a draw good enough to take them through to the quarter-finals the Jordanians sought to strangle the life out of the game from the very first whistle and it was a tactic that limited Australia’s goal scoring opportunities.

Brilliante was reduced to trying his luck from long range in the 34th minute only to see his shot go well over the bar.

Jordan upped the tempo as the end of the half drew near with Baha Faisal seeing his effort deflected wide off Burgess while Lennox dropped to save Omar Maanasrah’s attempt in the final minute of play.

The Jordanians had a more lively start to the second half with Ahmad Hisham forcing Lennox to push his shot from range around the post in the 50th minute and eight minutes later Eshan Haddad tried to flick the ball towards goal only to see his unorthodox attempt go straight to the goalkeeper.

Second half substitute Hoole was frustrated when his 66th minute attempt was blocked inside the area as the Australians failed to break down the Jordan defence at a succession of set-pieces.

Rajaei Ayed pulled the trigger on his long-range attempt in the 73rd minute only for the shot to go over the bar while four minutes into injury time Saleh Ibrahim should have won the game for Jordan only to shoot wide with just Lennox to beat.

Jamie MacLaren almost won the game right at the end for Australia but his looping effort came back off the crossbar and Jordan took the point required to advance at the expense of Vidmar’s team and keep the country’s Olympic dream alive.

With the United Arab Emirates and Jordan sealing first and second places in Group D yesterday the quarter-final line-up for the AFC U23 Championship Qatar 2016 is now known the qualified teams are: Qatar Iran Japan DPR Korea Korea Republic Iraq United Arab Emirates and Jordan.

The Peninsula