China survives huge scare to reach Asian Cup

SINGAPORE: China survived an almighty scare before scraping into next year’s Asian Cup on goal difference thanks to a late penalty in their 3-1 defeat to Iraq on Wednesday.
The perennial under-achievers looked set to miss out on reaching an 11th successive Asian Cup as they went three goals down and rivals Lebanon plundered a fifth goal against Thailand in Group B.
As they stood, China were set to miss out on a berth as the best third-placed team in all the groups, despite starting the evening three points ahead of Lebanon and with a superior goal difference.
But deep into the second half, Thailand’s Adisak Kraisorn scored in Bangkok to make it 5-2, before Zhang Xizhe slotted the crucial penalty that took China to the 2015 tournament in Australia.
The dramatic turn of events, played out within minutes of each other but thousands of miles apart, will have left China’s new coach Alain Perrin in no doubt about the size of his task.
While China heaved a sigh of relief, former champions Iraq were left to celebrate leap-frogging the visitors into Group C’s second automatic qualifying spot thanks to two goals from 2007 hero Younes Mahmoud.
Mahmoud, who scored the winner in Iraq’s 1-0 Asian Cup final win against Saudi Arabia seven years ago, struck twice in the first half before Ali Adnan netted their third after the break.
The second automatic berth in Group C and the spot for the best third-placed team were the only ones up for grabs as qualifying wrapped up on Wednesday, with 13 teams already locked in.
Malaysia beat Yemen 2-1 away in Group D but their faint hopes of qualifying as the best third-placed team were ended by the victories for Iraq and Lebanon.
Hong Kong and Syria also had their flickering ambitions extinguished when they lost 3-1 to Vietnam and 2-1 to Jordan respectively.

Japan ousts New Zealand

In Tokyo, Manchester United bench-warmer Shinji Kagawa scored his first international goal for six months in a message to his boss David Moyes, as Japan beat New Zealand 4-2 in a friendly on Wednesday.
A total of four goals in the first 17 minutes, including a brace from Mainz striker Shinji Okazaki, sealed victory for the Blue Samurai in their last international match before coach Alberto Zaccheroni selects his 23-strong squad in early May for the World Cup in Brazil.
Leicester City striker Chris Wood scored twice to save the All Whites’ blushes.
Kagawa has only played in nine of United’s 27 Premiership matches this season under Moyes without scoring or assisting a goal.
He was clipped down when he took a cross from new AC Milan signing Keisuke Honda and dribbled into the area in the seventh minute.
The 24-year-old attacking midfielder jumped for joy after sinking a shot from the penalty spot past keeper Glen Moss for Japan’s second goal of the night.
“No matter if it was a penalty kick or not, I felt happy because a goal is a goal,” Kagawa told reporters after the game before a sell-out crowd of 48,000 at the National Stadium.

Russia eases past Armenia

In Krasnodar, Russia showed few signs of rustiness despite the majority of their players sidelined by the domestic league’s winter break as they secured a 2-0 international friendly win over Armenia on Wednesday.
Aleksandr Kokorin missed an early chance to fire the hosts ahead when he was denied by Armenia keeper Roman Berezovski but he made the breakthrough on 21 minutes by turning home Aleksandr Samedov’s cross.
Russia were dominant and doubled their lead from the penalty spot two minutes before halftime after Samedov was fouled. Dmitri Kombarov slotted past Berezovski to make it 2-0.
After an encouraging first 45 minutes, coach Fabio Capello made four changes during the interval, introducing Aleksey Kozlov, Igor Denisov, Aleksandr Kerzhakov and Alan Dzagoev in place of Andrei Eshchenko, Yuri Zhirkov, Roman Shirokov and Fayzulin.
Russia quickly hit their stride again after the break with Kombarov just centimeters away from grabbing Russia’s third on 50 minutes as his fierce shot went just wide.