Iran became the first team from Asia to qualify for the 2022 World Cup finals on Thursday with a 1-0 victory over Iraq as Japan and South Korea moved a step closer to Qatar.
Porto forward Medhi Taremi scored the winner after 48 minutes in Tehran to send his country through to a World Cup finals for the sixth time, and third in a row.
Iran consolidated top spot in Group A with 19 points from seven games, two points ahead of South Korea, which is on the brink of qualifying after a 1-0 win over Lebanon in Sidon.
The United Arab Emirates is third position, eight points behind the Koreans — who are missing injured Spurs star Son Heung-min — after a 2-0 win over Syria.
In Group B, Japan took a step closer to Doha with a 2-0 win over a toothless China, and is sitting second, two points behind leader Saudi Arabia.
Australia is third, a further point behind Japan, to stay in the hunt for an automatic berth with a comfortable 4-0 home win over Vietnam in Melbourne.
The results: Group A: United Arab Emirates 2 (Caio 43, Yahya Al Ghassani 70) bt Syria 0; Iran 1 (Taremi 48) bt Iraq 0; Lebanon 0 lost to South Korea 1 (Cho Gue-sung 45+1).
Group B: Saudi Arabia 1 (Al-Buraikan 48) bt Oman 0; Australia 4 (Maclaren 30, Rogic 45+2, Goodwin 72, McGree 76) bt Vietnam 0; Japan 2 (Osako 13-pen, Ito 61) bt China 0.
For all the latest Sports News Click Here
For the latest news and updates, follow us on Google News.
Denial of responsibility! NewsBit.us is an automatic aggregator around the global media. All the content are available free on Internet. We have just arranged it in one platform for educational purpose only. In each content, the hyperlink to the primary source is specified. All trademarks belong to their rightful owners, all materials to their authors. If you are the owner of the content and do not want us to publish your materials on our website, please contact us by email – [email protected]. The content will be deleted within 24 hours.
