Five-goal Australia, Iraq advance in Asia World Cup qualifying
Australia handed out a 5-0 drubbing to Lebanon in Canberra in Group I while Iraq progressed from Group F after brushing aside the Philippines by the same score in Manila. In Group C, Son scored as South Korea look favourites to go through after a 3-0 win against Thailand in Bangkok, while China got their qualifying hopes back on track with a 4-1 win against Singapore.
Park Jin-seob and Lee Jae-sun joined the Tottenham Hotspur star on the scoresheet and South Korea now need only a draw in Singapore in June to go through. Australia's Craig Goodwin led his side to a fourth straight qualifying victory with two goals in a man-of-the-match performance, together with strikes from Kusini Yengi, John Iredale and an own goal.
"When I knew Craig Goodwin younger, he didn't believe in himself like he does these days," Australia coach Graham Arnold said of the 32-year-old, who also created the opener for Yengi and whose free-kick led to the own goal. "He's a top-quality player, but he's a fantastic person and a great leader. "His delivery, set pieces, is fantastic and his finishing, it's just got better and better as he gets older."
Palestine, their supporters in Gaza reeling from the Israel-Hamas war, gave themselves a great chance of going through with Australia by beating Bangladesh 1-0 in Dhaka. Palestine just need a draw with third-placed Lebanon in their next match in June to guarantee their progress from Group I.
Aymen Hussein's 14th-minute penalty set Iraq on their way against the Philippines, ranked 139th in the world. Amir Al Ammari's goal and a second from centre-forward Hussein gave the visitors a 3-0 half-time lead. They completed the job with second-half strikes from Zidane Iqbal and Zaid Tahseen to make it four wins out of
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