By Anna Harrington in Doha

The Socceroos have been left to rue what might have been after letting a golden opportunity at the Asian Cup slip in a heartbreaking quarter-final exit.

Australia suffered a dramatic 2-1 extra-time loss to South Korea after throwing away a 1-0 lead deep in regular time on Friday (Saturday AEDT) to exit the tournament in the final eight for a second consecutive time.

After Craig Goodwin gave Australia the lead, a nightmare stint off the bench from right-back Lewis Miller and two big moments from Son Heung-min turned the game in favour of Jurgen Klinsmann’s side.

The defeat is especially bitter as the tournament had opened up for the Socceroos, who consistently stated they could win the competition.

“It’s hard to kind of process it all – obviously just now being probably 30 seconds away from a semi-final and then finding yourself on the plane home,” midfielder Jackson Irvine said.

“Yeah, it hurts. It’s a tough lesson for us to learn as it was five years ago. It feels a bit of a deja vu feeling. Feeling like we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit.

“But I can’t commend the players enough for the way they fought and ran and went for it, even after going down to 10 men – 120 minutes, never gave up.

“But ultimately not enough.”

It is the third time coach Graham Arnold has overseen a quarter-final exit, after the Socceroos went out in the final eight when he was interim boss in 2007.

The irrepressible Goodwin had given Australia the lead when he volleyed home in the 42nd minute in front of 39,632 fans at the Al Janoub Stadium.

Australia then let multiple chances to double their lead slip, with Martin Boyle having a double-chance saved and Mitch Duke skying over the bar in the 54th minute, then heading wide in the 84th.

The Socceroos still arguably deserved to progress until Miller needlessly dived in on South Korea’s superstar captain Son, giving away a penalty deep into stoppage time.

Hwang Hee-chan coolly slammed the spot-kick into the top corner in the sixth minute of injury time to take the game to extra-time.

In the 104th minute, Miller was the culprit again, bringing down Hwang on the edge of the area, only for Spurs’s Son to lift a wonderful free kick into the top corner for what proved the winner.

Australia’s hopes of a comeback effectively evaporated minutes later when Aiden O’Neill lunged in and caught Hwang with his studs, with his initial yellow card upgraded to a straight red after a VAR referral.

“It’s quite devastating, quite emotional for the players and staff how we finished the game. We played well for the first 90 minutes till we conceded the penalty,” Arnold said.

“We were up 1-0, we had chances to (make it) 2-0, 3-0.

“And if you don’t take those chances you get punished. And that’s exactly what happened.”

Defender Aziz Behich added: “Right now it just hurts, really.

“All the hurdles that were thrown at us, we just tried to knock them down one by one. We fell a bit short tonight.”

Despite having two days’ less rest, South Korea finished stronger with the wind taken out of Australia’s sails.

“South Korea’s players play in top leagues with a fast tempo and they can keep it up,” Arnold said.

“They’re playing for teams like Tottenham, Wolves – they can run the legs off teams and punish us in the end.”

South Korea have teed up a semi-final against Jordan, who beat Tajikistan 1-0 earlier on Friday.

“It was a hard fight with Australia, we expected it,” coach Klinsmann said.

“But to go 120 minutes again, I’m proud of this team and their spirit.”