Qatar remain on course with easy victory over Yemen

Agencies/Al Ain

Soria opened the scoring at Sheikh Khalifa International Stadium only for Ala al-Sasi to equalise for Yemen, who had began the campaign with three consecutive defeats.

But after Abdelkarim hit back for Qatar before half-time, Kasola and El Sayed struck in the second half to leave Fahad Thani’s second place side knowing victory over Malaysia next week in Kuala Lumpur will secure qualification for Australia 2015.

“I’m extremely happy with the result as we achieved what we wanted and the result was good since we scored four goals. We should forget the match now and focus on the next match against Malaysia next week,” said Qatar coach Thani.

“The win today will be a big motivation for the players in order to continue winning although we were affected due to the injury of some players. The early goal affected our players who were relaxed and this game the chance to Yemen in order to score the equaliser.

“We are looking forward to finishing on top of the group and we have good chances to do so. We will go into the game against Malaysia with different tactics as we will be playing away and our opponents want to have a good result at home.”

Having beaten Yemen 6-0 at home last month, Qatar enjoyed the ideal start to the return fixture as Kasola rose above the Yemen defence to direct a left wing corner towards Soria and the striker stooped to head past goalkeeper Salem Saeed at his near post.

Yemen, though, equalised in spectacular fashion 16 minutes before half-time as Aiman al-Hagri’s clever flicked return pass bypassed the Qatar defence and played in al-Sasi, who rifled the ball past Saad Al Sheeb from close range.

But Yemen were back on level terms for just three minutes as Abdelkarim beat Saeed to Khalfan Ibrahim’s inswinging free-kick to power a header home from inside the six yard area.

And Qatar extended their advantage nine minutes into the second half as a free-kick from substitute Ali Hassan Yahya, who replaced Ibrahim at half-time, was turned home at the near post by Kasola.

Qatar added a fourth with eight minutes after the hour mark as El Sayed followed up after Saeed had failed to hold Hasan al-Haydos’ long range strike.

And for the second consecutive game against Qatar, Yemen finished the match with 10 men as Ahmed al-Khamri picked up a second yellow card in the closing stages.

Meanwhile, Ismail Abdullatif scored the only goal of the match in the 72nd minute as Bahrain beat Malaysia to clinch their ticket to Australia.

The UAE also booked their spot with a 4-0 thrashing of Hong Kong in Abu Dhabi. Salem Saleh, Walid Abbas, Omar Abdurahman and Ismail al-Hammadi.

Meanwhile, highly-rated midfielder Wu Lei grabbed a priceless winner as China beat Indonesia 1-0 to breathe life into their 2015 Asian Cup qualifying campaign.

Wu, 21, tagged “China’s Maradona” after his emergence as a teenager, was on target just before half-time at Xian’s Shanxi Stadium to maintain China’s second spot in Group C.

China’s campaign was listing after last month’s disappointing away draw with bottom side Indonesia, making victory imperative ahead of Tuesday’s game against table-toppers Saudi Arabia.

The national team, under caretaker coach Fu Bo since the sacking of Jose Antonio Camacho, were also under pressure to live up to Guangzhou Evergrande’s AFC Champions League victory last week.China are now guaranteed to stay among the group’s two automatic qualifying spots regardless of the result later between Saudi Arabia and Iraq, who are third.

Elsewhere, Syria bounced back from last month’s shock loss to Singapore with a big 4-0 win in the return leg to climb off the foot of Group A.

Iran, three-time winners of Asian football’s biggest prize, beat Thailand 3-0 at Bangkok’s Rajamangala Stadium to strengthen their grip on Group B.

And in Group E, Uzbekistan beat Vietnam 3-0 in Hanoi as they look to solidify second spot behind leaders UAE.