Socceroos bemoan Emerton suspension

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Jan 18, 2011

[ASIAN CUP] Australia beat Bahrain, 1-0, to win Group C at the Asian Cup ahead of second-place South Korea, a 4-1 winner over India, but the Socceroos lost Blackburn Rovers playmaker Brett Emerton for the quarterfinals after he was shown a second yellow card in the group stage. Sporting Kansas City's Sunil Chhetri scored the lone goal for India.

"I think it was very soft," Emerton said of his yellow card. "There w ere a lot of challenges throughout the game which warranted yellow cards rather than a little tug on the shirt.

Injuries already kept Luke Wilkshire, Jason Culina and David Carney out of the Bahrain game, and Tim Cahill injured his right leg in the game.

Mile Jedinak scored the game's only goal in the first half.

South Korea went ahead on goals by Ji Dong-Won and Koo Ja-Cheol in the first nine minutes before Chhetri scored his second goal of the tournament with a penalty kick in the 12th minute.

Ji's second goal in the 23rd minute restored the Koreans' two-goal lead, and substitute Son Heung-Min finished out the scoring in the 81st minute.