Japan ease into second round at Asian Cup

DOHA - Japan eased into the quarter-finals of the Asian Cup with a comfortable 5-0 victory against Saudi Arabia Monday and will be joined in the next round by Jordan, who beat Syria 2-1.

Shinji Okazaki was a hat-trick hero for Japan, for whom Ryoichi Maeda scored the other two, while Odai Al Saify and and own goal from Suliman Al Salman give Jordan their 2-1 come-back victory. Mohamed Al Zino gave Syria an early lead.

Japan set up a meeting in the round of the last eight with the hosts Qatar after topping Group B on seven points, while Jordan, who finish second on goal difference, will meet Uzbekistan.

Japan coach Alberto Zaccheroni said that the victory had enabled them to go past the first hurdle at the tournament. “We have improved throughout the competition from the first game.”

Looking ahead towards the quarter-final game against Qatar Zaccheroni said that it would not be an easy game. “They lost their first match, but they came back strongly.

“They are in good form and have the momentum, but then we are also in form, so it should be a good game.”

His Saudi counterpart Nasser Al Jaohar said that his side had not performed well at all. “We went into the game wanting to redeem ourselves for our performances in the other games.

“We did not manage to do this. I have to apologise for the team’s performance and I am a part of this performance.”

Syria finished their group games on three points, while Saudi Arabia failed to pick up a point.

In the Al-Rayyan stadium a paltry crowd of just 600 saw Japan completely dominate their opponents, who had already been eliminated from the competition ahead of the game.

Okazaki opened the scoring after just eight minutes when a defence-splitting pass from Yasuhito Endo enabled the forward to break the offside trap.

The Shimizu S-Pulse striker lobbed the ball over the on-rushing goalkeeper Waleed Abdullah to give his side the lead.

He scored his second just five minutes later off a pass from Shinji Kagawa that saw Okazaki steal his way behind the defence and launch a diving header.

The game was effectively beyond the Saudis in the 19th minute when Yuto Nagatomo played the ball into the middle for Maeda and the forward made no mistake.

The three-time champions Japan started the second half as they had the first and Maeda grabbed his second in the 51st minute when Abdullah was late in coming off his line to meet a Nagatomo cross and allowed the striker to head home.

Okazaki finished matters off five minutes from the end after playing a one-two with Maeda and then turning around his marker before poking the ball over the line.

The goal gave Okazaki the 10th hat-trick in the history of the Asian Cup.

In the other group game in the Qatar SC stadium that was played at the same time, Syria took the lead in the 15th minute through Al Zino after goalkeeper Amer Shafi had only managed to parry a shot from Sanharib Malki and the ball came to Al Zino.

Somewhat against the run of play Jordan, who went into the game knowing that a draw would be enough to see them through, equalized when a communication breakdown between goalkeeper Mosab Balhous saw Al Salman head a long cross from Amer Deeb over his goalkeeper.

Jordan grabbed the lead in the 59th minute when a long goal-kick from Shafi was allowed to run through the Syrian defence and Al Saify won a challenge against Ali Dyab and managed to nudge the ball past Balhous.

Jordan then held on to their lead to advance to the second round at the Asian Cup at their second attempt.