In the first round of Group E of the 2023 Asian Cup in Doha on January 15, the favorite South Korean team relied on Huang In-beom's opening goal and Lee Gang-in's brace to defeat the Bahrain team 3-1 and get a good start. The four-member Chinese international referee team with Ma Ning as the referee completed their first appearance in this Asian Cup. It is worth noting that Ma Ning showed a total of 7 yellow cards to both sides in this game, one of which was given to Son Heung-min for diving in the penalty area. Overall, Ma Ning's penalty decisions in this game were accurate.
4 Chinese referees are officiating this game: head referee Ma Ning, assistant referees Zhou Fei, Zhang Cheng and video assistant referee Fu Ming. This is also the first time for this group of Chinese referees to officiate this Asian Cup. Since Ma Ning has been selected into the main lineup of referees for the 2022 World Cup, and he, Zhou Fei, Zhang Cheng, and Fu Ming also worked together to officiate the opening game of the Club World Cup and the AFC Champions League final last year, he was selected to referee this position. This is the focus of the first round of the Asian Cup, which is also reasonable.
The progress of this game was uneventful, and the performances of the Korean team's stars such as Son Heung-min, Hwang In-beom, and Lee Gang-in were very eye-catching. Ma Ning's law enforcement performance was also good. He showed 7 yellow cards to players on both sides throughout the game. Among them, he issued consecutive yellow cards to South Korean team Park Yong-woo and Kim Min-jae within 5 minutes of the first half. After Li Jidi received the yellow card, the South Korean team actually received three yellow cards in the first 30 minutes of the game. One minute later, Huang Renfan was brought down to the ground by his opponent. Ma Ning did not show a yellow card to the Bahrain player who committed the foul, which also attracted a large number of Korean fans at the scene to boo. However, judging from the video information, Ma Ning's penalty did not exceed the scope of the rules.
Ma Ning always enforces the law sternly. In the 41st minute, Bahrain team Moses brought down Son Heung-min near the arc of the penalty area. Ma Ning decisively awarded the Korean team a frontcourt free kick. At this time, a defender of the Bahrain team muttered something and reached out to touch Maning's arm. As a result, the latter waved and gave a sharp warning.
What’s interesting is that after half-time, Sun Xingmin took the initiative to find Ma Ning on his way back to the lounge and communicated with the latter about some on-field penalties. Judging from their expressions, the two communicated happily. However, the game entered the second half of stoppage time, and Maning did not hesitate to show the yellow card to Son Heung-min for diving in the penalty area.
Text/Beijing Youth Daily Special Correspondent from Doha, Qatar Xiao Nan
Editor/Wang Fan
