DOHA: Iraq claimed their first victory over Japan in 42 years when they won their Asian Cup Group ‘D’ encounter 2-1 on Friday to qualify for the knockout stage thanks to a first-half double from Aymen Hussein at the Education City Stadium.

Japan were unbeaten against the West Asian side in their last nine games and Iraq’s victory propelled them to the top of the group standings with six points from two games while Hajime Moriyasu’s side have three points, the same as Indonesia who beat Vietnam 1-0 in the other Group ‘D’ game.

“Today is a great day for Iraqi people but for us it’s just a win. We have six points, but the players must now think of Vietnam (in the last group game) and they need to rest,” Iraq coach Jesus Casas told reporters. “I’m very proud of my players. All Iraqi players should be proud... The perfect match is impossible, but we were close to the perfect match I wanted.”

Iraq got on the board inside five minutes when Japan goalkeeper Zion Suzuki failed to deal with a cross, parrying the ball straight to Hussein who headed it into the top corner.

Iraq doubled their lead on the stroke of halftime when Ahmed Al-Hajjaj skipped past his marker and floated in a cross that was headed home from point-blank range by Hussein as the Iraqi fans went delirious.

Moriyasu made five substitutions after the restart but the Samurai Blue rarely tested the keeper until the 94th minute when Endo headed home at the far post from a corner.

“We prepared the same way as we did for Vietnam but unfortunately we found ourselves in a difficult position, especially early on. The crowd and atmosphere made us feel like we were playing an away game,” Moriyasu said.

Indonesia moved up to third after Asnawi Mangkualam scored from the spot in the 42nd minute after they won a penalty when defender Nguyen Thanh Binh pulled Rafael Struick’s shirt and hauled him down in the box.

Mangkualam stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way to score. Vietnam also had Le Pham Thanh Long sent off for a second yellow card in the 91st minute.

Late on Thursday, Palestine held 10-man United Arab Emirates to a 1-1 draw in their Group ‘C’ match at Al Janoub Stadium after Sultan Adil’s opener was cancelled out by an own goal.

UAE took the lead in the 23rd minute when Adil scored with a leaping header but their hopes of an easy contest thereafter went up in smoke when Khalifa Al-Hammadi received a red card for a foul on Palestine forward Oday Dabbagh.

But with UAE down to 10 men, Palestine took the game to the 2019 semi-finalists and their persistence was duly rewarded five minutes into the second half when Bader Abaelaziz headed a cross into his own net to make it 1-1.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2024