Hosts Qatar, Uzbekistan through to Asian Cup quarter-finals

DOHA - Hosts Qatar Sunday made sure of their place in the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup with a 3-0 victory against Kuwait.

They were joined in the round of the last eight by Uzbekistan, who topped Group B after playing to a 2-2 draw against China.

Qatar, for whom captain Bilal Mohammed and Mohamed El Sayed scored in the space of five minutes early in the first half, before Fabio Cesar added a third late in the game, finish a point behind Uzbekistan on six points, while China has four.

Kuwait are without a point after losing their three matches.

In the Khalifa Stadium in Doha, that disappointingly was not sold out, the hosts began like a house on fire, knowing that in all probability they would have to win to stand a chance of going through.

Uruguay-born Sebastian Suria should have given them the lead in the second minute already after a Qatar corner, but his header flew over the cross bar.

The opening goal did not take long in coming though as captain Mohamed scored with a header in the 11th minute from a Suria cross.

Suria played a part in his side’s second just five minutes later when a long ball into the area found El Sayed in space, but his header was well saved by goalkeeper Nawaf Al Khaldi, who was unlucky to see the ball come to Suria, whose shot was blocked.

El Sayed then picked up the loose ball and with the goalkeeper stranded in no-man’s land, the forward found the back of the net with a well-taken shot.

In the second half, Qatar seemed content to ride out the result, knowing that Kuwait lacked the strength upfront to come back into the match.

Much to the delight of the 28,300 crowd the hosts grabbed a late third goal when Fabio Cesar scored with a free-kick from the edge of the area after Suria had been fouled.

In the other game, which was played at the same time in the Al-Gharafa stadium, China had the better start and went ahead after just six minutes from a corner.

Captain Server Djeparov set up Odil Akhmedov for the equalizer on the half-hour. The Uzbeks, who went into the game on the back of two victories in their first two games, scored a minute after the re-start when Alexander Geynrikh beat goalkeeper Yang Zhi.

The Chinese drew level after Anzur Ismailov fouled Yang Hao and Hao Junmin scored from the resultant free-kick in the 56th minute.

Even though China, who, in the case of a Qatari victory, needed themselves to get three points to stand a chance to go through, pushed forward in search of a winning goal, there was to be no happy end for them and they also had coach Gao Hongbo sent off late in the game for remonstrating with the referee.