Asian soccer giants South Korea and Saudi Arabia secured berths for the men's football competition in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday. The Koreans boarded the bus to Japan after their emphatic 2-0 semifinal victory over the Aussies at the ongoing AFC U23 Championship in Thailand. The other semifinal saw Saudi Arabia edging past Uzbekistan 1-0 to ensure a place in the upcoming Summer Games.

As the top three teams will earn berths for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the semifinal matches decided the first two qualifiers for the quadrennial event. Incidentally, the South Koreans had not missed the Games since hosting the Olympics in Seoul in 1988 and were able to keep that streak going.

Earlier, a gung ho Korean side almost opened the scoring in the 24th minute, but Oh Se-hun hit the post. In the 56th minute, some nice passing gave Lee You-hyeon the much-needed space to hit a drive that bounced off the post to Kim Dae-won, who gifted his side the lead.

Twenty minutes later, South Korea scored again when Lee Dong-gyeong picked up the ball on the edge of the area after a commanding header by Won Du-jae, and he beat Tom Glover. The brace helped South Korea reach the tournament final and also qualify for the Olympics.

Meanwhile, in the other semifinal between Saudi and Uzbekistan, Bobir Abdixolikov squandered a glorious chance to hand the Uzbeks the lead when he missed an open net in the 17th minute. However, with three minutes to go for the final whistle, a Saudi cross was poorly cleared by the Uzbeks, allowing substitute Al Omran to hammer a shot that deflected off Abdullah Al Hamdan into the net. The solitary goal handed over a win to Saudi Arabia as Saad Alshehri's side sealed a place in the final and the Olympics as well. The losing semifinalists, Uzbekistan and Australia, will fight for the third place and the last ticket to Tokyo.