The Koreans remained on course for their first continental title since 1960 after goalkeeper Lee Woon-jae denied Iran skipper Mehdi Mahdavikia and striker Rasoul Khatibi in the shootout to give his side a 4-2 win after the two sides had played out a goalless stalemate over 120 minutes.

While the Taeguk Warriors earned a measure of revenge for their 4-3 defeat to the Iranians at the same stage in China three years ago, Verbeek claimed it was only a step on the road to their ultimate goal of regaining the Asian Cup.

"The players have done well but we have still won nothing yet," said the Dutchman.

"We have reached the semi-final but that is still nothing. We have to go to the final and then try to win the Cup."

The Korea coach felt that his side's win was not undeserved.

"We were in control and we didn't give many chances away," he explained.

"Organisation-wise I think we did very well defensively and I am just very glad to be going to the semi-final.

"To be honest I don't think that either team had the better of the game. But if our players had played a bit more with their head and less of their heart, maybe I thought that we could have made better use of our wide players tonight."

The Koreans will now turn their attention to their last-four showdown on Wednesday against Iraq in Kuala Lumpur when they will look to book a place in the final for the first time since 1988.

"I'm more worried by the fact that we have one less day [than Iraq] and that we played 120 minutes tonight," Verbeek said.

"I think that we only have three days' rest to bring the players physically and mentally back, and there will be no time for training sessions.

"We have played Iraq recently and although it was only a friendly, we scored three goals against them. But that's history and now it's a new game and a new challenge."

Meanwhile, Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei took full responsibility for his side's defeat as Team Melli extended a championship drought dating back to 1976.

"I would like to thank all of my players one by one because they did exactly whatever I asked of them," said the Iran boss.

"On our opportunities and last touch, we were perhaps not so accurate, but I felt that we dominated the match, we created a lot of goalscoring chances and our goalkeeper did not have any difficult saves to make in the whole match, even in extra time.

"But I take all responsibility for the result alone. The players did their best and we had a lot of chances but when it comes to penalty kicks, it depends a lot on chance and tonight, we were not lucky."