Iraq will meet Pim Verbeek's men at Kuala Lumpur's Bukit Jalil Stadium after surpassing expectations by reaching the last four for the first time in 31 years.

The Middle East side booked their place in the semis with a quarter-final win over Vietnam on Saturday, and Vieira believes anything from here on is a welcome bonus.

He said: "Our mission here is already accomplished in one sense because all my expectations here have been fulfilled by reaching the semi-finals.

"It's good for the players, it's good for the country and it's good for the people that we have be able show the good play of Iraq."

The coach added that he hoped Iraq's fine form at this tournament will offer a little respite to the beleaguered citizens of the war-torn country.

"I know that the situation in Iraq is critical and complicated, and from the beginning I have tried to keep my players under pressure to do the best for their country to try to give more happiness to the people after each game," Vieira said.

It will be the first-ever meeting between Korea and Iraq at the Asian Cup, although the two teams met less than a month ago in a friendly on Jeju Island.

On that occasion the Koreans ran out 3-0 winners, but Vieira believes that defeat has handed the Iraqi players an opportunity to learn from their mistakes.

He continued: "It was our 'makhtub' (fate) that we went to Korea to prepare our team for the Asian Cup and they smashed us, although that game was played in very different circumstances because we had travelled for 36 hours to get to Korea.

"I have some information about them [Korea], but I will keep my opinions about their team and their strengths and weaknesses to myself.

"What I will say is that they have a good team and we know of their quality because they played well at the World Cups in 2002 and 2006.

"But they also have to respect us because the field that we will play on tomorrow is very different from the one that we played on at Jeju in a friendly game."