Saudi, UAE, Bahrain secure Asian Cup spots
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E-mail China.org.cn, November 18, 2013
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain all booked their places at the AFC Asian Cup Australia 2015 on Friday evening with qualifying victories over Iraq, Hong Kong and Malaysia respectively.
Saudi Arabia, three-time winners of the competition, handed 2007 champions Iraq a 2-1 defeat in Group C to ensure they continued their record of qualifying for the finals every year since 1984 while the UAE's second consecutive 4-0 win over Hong Kong secured their spot in the finals from Group E.
Nassir Al Shamrani scored Saudi Arabia's decisive goal after Younus Mahmood levelled the scores on the stroke of half-time following Tassir Al Jassam's opener for the Saudis in the 17th minute to maintain his nation's 100% record in qualifying for Australia 2015.
"I want to congratulate all Saudi fans for this victory and I want to thank them for their support tonight as they helped us a lot to achieve this victory and they motivated the players a lot in order to get the three points," said Saudi Arabia coach Juan Lopez Caro.
"All the players performed well tonight and they played with great fighting spirit. Iraq are a good side and they didn't make things easy for us especially as they were strong in the physical encounters. However, the spirit of our players helped us to get a good victory at the end."
The result leaves the Iraqis in danger of missing out on a place in the finals as China moved into second place in Group C after their 1-0 win over Indonesia, which came courtesy of a first half header from Wu Lei.
Salem Al Rejaibi and Walid Abbas scored in the first half at Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium, and with Omar Abdulrahman and Ismail Al Hammadi adding late goals as the UAE sealed their passage to the finals through Group E with two qualifiers remaining.
Hong Kong, meanwhile, slipped three points behind second place Uzbekistan who will make the trip to Hong Kong next week in the penultimate round of fixtures after the Central Asians beat Vietnam 3-0 in Hanoi.
"We are happy to have qualified for to the Asian Cup finals and we have 24 players who all contributed and helped us to reach this far," said UAE coach Mahdi Ali.
"The match was good from our side and we now have a good image and everyone knows that we are now a good team and that is why our opponents usually play with a defensive formation and we knew that we will face such tactics."
Bahrain – semi-finalists in 2004 – saw off a determined Malaysia 1-0 in Group D thanks to a goal from Ismail Abdulatif to seal their progress to the finals for the fourth tournament in a row, but Iran will have to wait until Tuesday to confirm their place in the finals, despite winning 3-0 against Thailand in Bangkok in Group B.
In Group A, Syria rekindled their hopes of appearing at the finals with a 4-0 defeat of Singapore to notch up their first win of the qualifying campaign and move to within in a point of Jordan, whose meeting with group leaders Oman was postponed due to their involvement in qualifying for the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals.
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