2023 AFC Asian Cup Group E

Group E of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup took place from 15 to 25 January 2024. The group consisted of South Korea, Malaysia, Jordan and Bahrain. The top two teams, Bahrain and South Korea, along with third-placed Jordan (as one of the four best third-placed teams), advanced to the round of 16.

Teams
Notes

South Korea vs Bahrain
This was the fourth time South Korea faced Bahrain in a competitive AFC Asian Cup fixture. Their most recent encounter happened in 2019, where South Korea claimed a hard-fought 2–1 win; all three previous Asian Cup encounters ended by the same scoreline, with Bahrain claiming one win—in 2007—while South Korea won two others, in 2011 and 2019.

The match started with great difficulties for the South Koreans due to Bahrain's aggressive efforts, which saw South Korea receive three yellow cards. However, South Korea managed to regroup and re-applied pressure against Bahrain. In the 38th minute, following a foul from Ali Madan, Park Yong-woo quickly provided a long-range pass to Lee Jae-sung before he gave a low pass toward Hwang In-beom, who then struck Bahrain's net despite frantic efforts by Bahraini defenders. In the second half, Bahrain surprisingly gave a quick response in the 51st minute; a brilliant high pass from Madan gave the ball to Mohamed Marhoon, whose shot got deflected by Jung Seung-hyun to Abdullah Al-Hashash, as he didn't miss the opportunity to equalise. Five minutes later, attempt to clear the ball from defender Mohamed Adel resulted in the ball instead given to Kim Min-jae, who then sent the ball to Lee Kang-in before Lee himself delivered a thunderous shot to restore South Korea's lead. Lee then finished the game in the 68th minute when Mohamed Al-Hardan mishandled the ball to Son Heung-min, who then passed to Hwang In-beom before Hwang sent it to Lee Kang-in, who then gave a clinical finish to the bottom right corner of Ebrahim Lutfalla.

This was the first time South Korea managed to defeat Bahrain with more than one-goal margin, with all three previous meetings all ended with one-goal difference.



Malaysia vs Jordan
This was the first time Malaysia faced Jordan in the AFC Asian Cup finals. Their latest competitive meeting was at the 1988 AFC Asian Cup qualification, where Malaysia and Jordan were held to a goalless draw. Jordan have been undefeated to Malaysia nor even conceded a goal.

The match was quickly dominated by Jordan over an inexperienced Malaysian side and they soon overpowered Malaysia when Yazan Al-Naimat produced a backheel for Mahmoud Al-Mardi, who then curved the ball into Malaysia's net in the 12th minute. Six minutes later, things became even better for Jordan when Malaysia's captain Matthew Davies committed a foul on Al-Naimat in the penalty area before Musa Al-Taamari converted it to double Jordan's lead. In the 32th minute, it was Al-Taamari who again capitalised from his team's counterattack in Malaysia's left bank to pass to Al-Naimat, who then overcame Syihan Hazmi before sending it for Al-Mardi to secure his poker. Despite Malaysia's improvement in the second half, Malaysia ended up not just failing to score, but even in a failed offensive, Musa Al-Taamari added to his credential from a long pass before flicking over Hazmi to secure Jordan's big win.

Jordan once again defeated Malaysia effortedly to remain undefeated and did not concede a goal.





Jordan vs South Korea
This was the second Asian Cup finals encounter between Jordan and South Korea; their only Asian Cup meeting was in 2004 where Jordan shocked South Korea with a goalless draw. The last time the two met each other in any competitive fixtures occurred during the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualification, which South Korea gained a first-ever win over Jordan 1–0 away; despite this, South Korea remained undefeated to Jordan with three wins and two draws.

South Korea quickly applied pressure and an unnecessary foul from Ihsan Haddad to Son Heung-min at the fifth minute resulted in a penalty after a lengthy VAR consultation; Son didn't miss the opportunity to convert it to goal. However, this goal ended up triggering the Jordanian fightback and it was Jordan, not South Korea, that applied pressure. In one such attempt at the 37th minute, a corner kick by the Jordanians resulted in Park Yong-woo (who was being pressured by Yazan Al-Arab) scoring an own goal to equalise the match. To make it better for Jordan, before the end of the first half, at the sixth minute of extra time, Musa Al-Taamari produced a solo; despite his shot was being prevented by Jung Seung-hyun, it deflected wide enough for Yazan Al-Naimat to take the volley and give Jordan a shock lead. At the second half, Jordan's organised defence proved to be highly effective as South Korea could not find the back of the net, but when the match came to extra time, Son Heung-min managed to sneak into Jordanian penalty area, providing a pass to Hwang In-beom, whose shot later hit the foot of Al-Arab before deflecting to Yazid Abu Layla's net, confirming the result to a thrilling draw.

This result meant South Korea remained undefeated to Jordan after six meetings, yet South Korea had not defeated Jordan in both Asian Cup meetings, while Jordan missed out another opportunity to produce a shock result after their neighbour Iraq shocked Japan a day earlier.



Bahrain vs Malaysia
Bahrain and Malaysia met each other shortly after their recent meeting during the 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification. Malaysia won just two in 12 previous meetings, but Bahrain dominated in all competitive fixtures with an undefeated record, including the most recent 2–1 win in the same Asian Cup qualification.

The match was largely a dull affair as neither Bahrain or Malaysia proved to be the better side for most of the game, until the fifth minute of the second half's extra time, when from a corner kick, the ball was deflected to Ali Madan, who then unleashed his long-range shot at the surprise of the Malaysians as Syihan Hazmi failed to clear out despite having his hand slightly touching the ball, resulting in the only goal of the match at death.

With this result, Malaysia failed to advance past the group stage of an AFC Asian Cup again after four appearances, while they were also struggling to find their first Asian Cup win since 1980 (2–0 against the United Arab Emirates).



South Korea vs Malaysia
South Korea faced Malaysia for the first time since their last meeting during the 1990 FIFA World Cup qualification in June 1989, which South Korea won 3–0. In term of Asian Cup finals encounter however, Malaysia held South Korea to a 1–1 draw back in 1980.

South Korea got off to a dream start when Jeong Woo-yeong came out better in a corner, whose header saw the ball cross the line despite Syihan Hazmi's effort to give South Korea the lead at the 21st minute after VAR intervened. However, Malaysia put up a shock fightback at the early part of the second half; first, a clumsy defending by Hwang In-beom saw the ball intercepted by Darren Lok, who then gave Arif Aiman Hanapi before providing to Faisal Halim, after which he successfully soloed over the South Korean defence and Jo Hyeon-woo to hook the ball home. Then, another poor defending from Seol Young-woo saw him foul Arif Aiman at the 58th minute, which VAR again intervened, before Arif himself converted to give Malaysia the shock lead four minutes later. In the 83rd minute however, Lee Kang-in pounced on the ball brilliantly from a set-piece, which hit Syihan before deflecting into Malaysia's net. Drama came at added time when at the first minute, from Hwang Hee-chan's horizontal delivery, Oh Hyeon-gyu was fouled by Junior Eldstål, which resulted in a penalty after VAR once again intervened, allowing Son Heung-min to convert from the spot. But as the Koreans were about to top the table, Malaysia left the last mark in the match when from another failure to clear out by the South Korean defence, ball was given to Paulo Josué before his clinical pass for fellow South American Romel Morales allowed Morales to seal the deal with a low shot to the left corner to end the match to a manic draw.

Despite not winning a single match and were firmly eliminated before this encounter, the 3–3 draw meant Malaysia got their first point in the AFC Asian Cup since 1980, the last time they qualified not as a host country. For South Korea, they once again failed to win against Malaysia at the AFC Asian Cup (drawn two), and because of Bahrain's 1–0 win over Jordan, South Korea failed to top the group table for the first time since 2011.



Jordan vs Bahrain
This was the two's first competitive encounter since the 1998 FIFA World Cup qualification, where both teams gained a win each. The two teams' most recent meeting was in a friendly in 2021, where Jordan won 2–1. This was also the first Asian Cup meetings between the two.

In a match where Bahrain needed to secure at least a point against already qualified Jordan, the Jordanians were the ones to make stronger start. However, as Jordan were trying to find the goal, they were punished from a counterattack at the 34th minute from a brilliant defending effort by the Bahrainis, which saw Ali Madan provide a clinical gift for Abdulla Yusuf Helal, who then sprinted into the net of Yazid Abu Layla before scoring at the bottom left corner. The goal turned out to be the only goal of the match, as both teams' rather dull performances meant Bahrain secured the win.

With this result, combined with South Korea's dropping two points to a shock draw to Malaysia at the same time, it was the first time ever in Bahrain's Asian Cup history that they managed to win two group stage matches and topped the group stage table.



Discipline
Fair play points would have been used as tiebreakers if the overall and head-to-head records of teams were tied. These were calculated based on yellow and red cards received in all group matches as follows:
 * first yellow card: −1 point;
 * indirect red card (second yellow card): −3 points;
 * direct red card: −3 points;
 * yellow card and direct red card: −4 points;

Only one of the above deductions was applied to a player in a single match.