By Michael Church
SAITAMA, Japan, Sept 5 (Reuters) – Bahrain stunned Australia 1-0, Qatar lost 3-1 to the United Arab Emirates and South Korea and Saudi Arabia were held to draws by lower-ranked opponents in a dramatic opening to Asia’s third round of World Cup qualifying on Thursday.
The Koreans were jeered off the Seoul World Cup Stadium pitch after a 0-0 draw with Palestine before Saudi Arabia were unexpectedly held to a 1-1 draw by Indonesia in Jeddah.
There were no problems, however, for World Cup regulars Japan as Hajime Moriyasu’s side handed China a 7-0 thrashing at Saitama Stadium and six-times qualifiers Iran secured a 1-0 win over visitors Kyrgyzstan.
The Bahrainis celebrated wildly after the final whistle at Robina Stadium on the Gold Coast having beaten Australia for the first time in seven attempts, making the perfect start to their bid to qualify for the finals for the first time.
The Socceroos were already down to 10 men in the Group C contest after the dismissal of Kusini Yengi and Abdullah Al-Khalasi’s cross took a wicked deflection off Harry Souttar to wrongfoot goalkeeper Mat Ryan and give Bahrain the points.
In contrast, Australia’s group rivals Japan were in blistering form as they handed out an embarrassing defeat to an out-classed China.
Wataru Endo gave the hosts the lead with a 12th-minute header and Kaoru Mitoma doubled the advantage when he nodded in Ritsu Doan’s cross in the dying moments of the half.
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Takumi Minamino scored twice in six minutes soon after the interval to put the result beyond doubt, but Moriyasu’s side refused to ease off against the already well-beaten Chinese with Junya Ito, Daizen Maeda and Takefusa Kubo all on target.
Saudi Arabia, also playing in Group C, struggled despite playing on home turf, with Salem Al-Dawsari seeing his 79th minute penalty saved by Indonesia’s debutant goalkeeper Maarten Paes.
Rangar Oratmangoen gave the Southeast Asians a surprise lead with a deflected shot after 19 minutes but Musab Al-Juwayr levelled the scores three minutes into first half stoppage time.
South Korea were unable to find a way past Palestine goalkeeper Rami Hamada in Group B, provoking the ire of fans in the first game under Hong Myung-bo since the former defender returned to coach the team in July.
The Koreans trail Iraq in the standings as Aymen Hussein’s header earned his side a 1-0 win over Oman in Basra. Jordan and Kuwait, the other two teams in Group B, played out a 1-1 draw in Amman.
In Group A, the UAE fought back to defeat Qatar 3-1 having gone behind to Ibrahim Al-Hassan’s 38th minute opener.
But goals from Harib Abdalla, Khaled Ibrahim and Ali Saleh in the final quarter of the game saw the visitors notch up a victory over the back-to-back Asian Cup winners.
Iran defeated Kyrgyzstan thanks to Mehdi Taremi’s 34th-minute goal while Uzbekistan also claimed three points when Jaliloddin Marsharipov’s strike handed North Korea a 1-0 loss in Tashkent.
The top two from each of the three groups progresses directly to the 2026 finals in the United States, Mexico and Canada with the third and fourth placed teams going into another round of qualifying.
(Reporting by Michael Church, additional reporting by Nick Mulvenney, Editing by Toby Davis, Pritha Sarkar and Ed Osmond)
