Syria blurs and is crushed by Japan 5-0. DPR Korea only needs a draw against Myanmar in Laos to advance to the next round. Since I saw group B, I knew that North Korea would advance to the next round. NK usually gets close results against Japan and despite not having played at home in Pyongyang, they were superior to Syria who shot themselves in the foot by tying with Myanmar and usually being beaten by Japan.
S. Korea take the lead 1:0 against China. Sill more than 20 minutes left in the game. Also Australia is up 1:0 v Palestine early in the 1st half.
Thailand will have their destiny in their own hands with S. Korea beating China 1:0 (FT). But to advance, Thailand will still need to beat Singapore by 2+ (probably 3+) goals.
Australia 3 up at half time. The first a very soft penalty and the third had at least one and probably two offsides in the play.
Thailand needs 2 more goals. Come on, I hope they qualify instead of China. I was impressed by Them at the Asian Cup, and Im not a fan of China nationalizing players
Poor Thailand. But they can only blame themselves for only getting 1 point against China and not taking more of their chances today. Shame
I watched the last 20 minutes of the Thailand game. They can only blame themselves, they had multiple chances to make it 4-1. Hard luck to them. Really entertaining game.
The other group that has a lot to play for is group A. I honestly don’t know who of India, Kuwait or Afghanistan will go through. All have great opportunities. India will play a largely U23 Qatar side who drew Afghanistan. And of course Kuwait and Afghanistan will face-off in Kuwait.
India should have won that match! Qatar's first goal was clearly invalid, I'd be really angry if I were an Indian supporter... I've never seen such a grotesque mistake for a referee in a match!
For all the hype around ASEAN nations, only Indonesia progressed to round 3. And that was from a group that contained 3 from the region, meaning at least one of them was guaranteed a spot in the next round from the start. Malaysia and India will be disappointed by the way their campaigns withered away after promising starts. Tajikistan too, considering their Asian Cup run, but they have a young squad and were in a tough group.
Man, why isn't there VAR? Stupid stuff like the India / Qatar goal should not happen in this day and age.
Group A: Qatar, Kuwait Group B: Japan, N. Korea Group C: S. Korea, China Group D: Oman, Kyrgyzstan Group E: Iran, Uzbekistan Group F: Iraq, Indonesia Group G: Jordan, Saudi Arabia Group H: UAE, Bahrain Group I: Australia, Palestine
Shame for both Thailand and Vietnam. Emerging natios, I was somehow sure one of them will play in 2026. Ivanković's China progressed, but they looked better with previous coach. It will be interesting to see if they can do anything in next round. And I do not feel sorry for Štimac and his team. High-flying start followed by disastrous five games, they killer their hopes by themselves. But shame this referee mistake today happened.
Apparently after Saudi's loss to Jordan, Iraq has overtaken them and is in pot 2 now alongside Australia and Qatar