China and North Korea’s Olympic qualifying hopes were hanging by a thread after home defeats on Sunday as big guns Australia, Japan and South Korea marched toward the London Games.
While the Asian zone’s top trio all enjoyed comfortable wins, China and North Korea were staring elimination in the face after 1-0 losses to lowly Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on home turf.
Hussain Al Hadhri silenced Shanghai’s Hongkou Stadium crowd with a strike after just three minutes, which was enough to seal a vital victory for the desert sultanate with a population of just 3 million.
Photo: Reuters
Meanwhile, North Korea were embarrassed at Pyongyang’s Kim Il-sung Stadium by the UAE, dealing a blow to their hopes of reaching next year’s tournament. Both China and North Korea will now have to reverse the deficits in Thursday’s return legs.
“It is not over. The players all tried their best and we believe we still have a chance in Oman,” China coach Miroslav Blazevic said. “Oman were lucky that they got a gift from us at the start of the match. This advantage gave them more confidence and a mental advantage, but if we could have equalized quickly then it would have been a different game.”
Asia’s leading teams are all in action for the two-legged second qualifying round, with the winners split into three groups of four for the final phase, which winds up in March.
The top three all enjoyed a more comfortable evening as Australia sparkled to a 3-0 win over trouble-hit Yemen, South Korea overcame dogged Jordan 3-1 and Japan beat Kuwait by the same margin.
In Gosford, striker Jason Hoffman scored twice and midfielder Mitch Nichols got the other to put Australia within touching distance of the next round.
“It could have been more to be honest. We missed some really easy chances and their goalkeeper made some outstanding saves as well,” Australia coach Aurelio Vidmar said. “We’re pleased with that and now we’ll hopefully go to Newcastle and finish it off.”
Thursday’s return match has been moved from Yemen to Newcastle, Australia, because of security concerns in the Middle Eastern country following mass protests and unrest against the ruling regime.
South Korea were made to work harder for their win and had to come from a goal down after Jordan’s Mahmoud Saleem Mahmoud Za’tara opened the scoring in first-half stoppage-time, but Kim Tae-hwan equalized 11 minutes into the second half, before midfielder Yoon Bit-garam calmly converted a penalty with 13 minutes to go. Substitute Kim Dong-sub increased their margin with an 86th-minute header.
In Toyota, Japan dominated Kuwait, but were left kicking themselves after they conceded an away goal which gave the visitors a lifeline in Thursday’s return leg.
As Japan peppered the Kuwait goal, Cerezo Osaka midfielder Hiroshi Kiyotake nodded the opener on 18 minutes, before Mizuki Hamada grabbed a second headed goal eight minutes before halftime.
Japan were cruising when Kashima Antlers forward Yuya Osako poached the third just after the hour, but Jaber Jazea pounced on a defensive mistake on 68 minutes to give Kuwait hope of pulling off a huge upset later this week.
“It was a disappointing game because we let in a goal. We could have scored more goals, but we can go to Kuwait in very good form,” Kiyotake said.
In Arbil, Iran secured a vital away victory over archrivals Iraq, thanks to a first-half strike from Mohsen Mosalman for a 1-0 win.
There was also a shock victory for Palestine, who won 1-0 in Bahrain thanks to a 72nd-minute strike from K.H. Salem.
Bahrain had reached the second round by the back door after Thailand, who had defeated them in the first stage, were punished for fielding an ineligible player.
This week’s 12 winning teams will be split into three groups of four for final qualifying, with the three top sides all gaining automatic entry to the Olympics.
The second-placed teams go into a three-way round robin, with the winner playing off against a side from the African confederation for another ticket to the Games.
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