Japan won two straight in World Cup qualifiers after thrashing Bahrain 5-0, while Indonesia held Australia to a draw and another point.
2026 World Cup Qualifiers, Asia Zone, Round 3, Group C, Bahrain hosted Japan. It turned out that in this game, the team from the land of the Samurai was superior, taking the lead in the first half from a penalty kick by Ayase Ueda in the 37th minute after a Bahraini player committed a handball in the penalty area.
Then in the second half, Ueda spun and shot to make it 2-0 in the 47th minute, Hidemasa Morita broke through and scored the third goal in the 61st minute, and three minutes later, Morita again charged in and made it 4-0 for the Samurai.
Finally, Koki Okawa followed up with a header for the 5th goal in the 81st minute. Japan thrashed Bahrain 5-0, with 6 points from 2 matches, leading the group. Bahrain has 3 points, in 3rd place.
In another match in Group C, China hosted Saudi Arabia. In this match, China took the lead 1-0 in the 14th minute when Ali Layami mish
andled the ball and scored an own goal. The situation for the visitors did not improve when Mohamed Kano was sent off with a red card in the 19th minute.
But Saudi Arabia equalized 1-1 from a corner kick by Hassan Kadish in the 29th minute, before in the second half in the 90th minute, Kadish headed the winning goal for Saudi Arabia to beat China 2-1, collecting 3 points, playing 2 matches and having 4 points, while China lost 2 matches in a row.
Group B game, Oman hosts South Korea. The game started 10 minutes, the Korean team in black took the lead from a long-range shot by Hwang Hee-chan, a striker from Wolverhampton.
However, in the injury time, 45+2 minutes, Oman equalized 1-1 from a header into the own goal by Chung Seung-hyun.
In the second half, in the 82nd minute, South Korea took the lead again 2-1 from a beautiful left-footed shot by Son Heung-min. In the 90+11th minute, South Korea scored the final goal 3-1 from Ju Min-kyu. The game ended with South Korea defeating Oman 3-1, collecting 4 more
points and moving up to 2nd place in Group B.
Source: Thai News Agency