Free piggy ride: Japan’s Ayase Ueda (second from left) carries his teammate after scoring the fourth goal in the 4-2 win over Vietnam in the Asian Cup Group D match at the Al Thumama Stadium in Doha on Sunday. — AP
AL-RAYYAN: Big wins for Japan and Iran on Sunday backed up their pre-tournament billing as two of the favou rites to lift the Asian Cup.
Record four-time champions Japan came from behind to beat Vietnam 4-2 in Group D, and Iran overcame the Palestinian soccer team 4-1 in Group C.
Japan are the standout favourites to triumph in Qatar after their dominance was broken over the last two editions of the tournament.
They have not lifted the trophy since 2011 – ending a run that saw them win four out of six titles. And they suffered an early shock when trailing 1-2 to a Vietnam team ranked 94th by FIFA, before powering back to avoid an upset.
Japan’s coach Hajime Moriyasu praised Vietnam’s outing in the first-half but said his side’s patience got them the win.
“I know people in Japan wanted to see a game where we overcome our opponents with great power, but opening games in tournaments are always difficult and that’s what we saw,” he said.
Takumi Minamino scored two goals in Japan’s comeback win against Vietnam.
The former Liverpool forward opened the scoring after 11 minutes at Doha’s Al Thumama Stadium but Nguyen Dình Bac equalised in the 16th and Vietnam went ahead through Pham Tuan Hai’s goal in the 33rd.
Japan recovered when Minamino, who is now at Monaco, evened the game again in the 45th.
Said Minamino: “I’ve been playing against Vietnam since I was young so I know how good a team they can be.”
“But it wasn’t just in defence -- they were really good in attack as well. I was surprised by how good they were.”
Keito Nakamura made it 3-2 in first-half stoppage time and substitute Ayase Ueda extended Japan’s lead in the 85th.
Indonesia play Iraq in Group D.
Iran, who won the competition three times in a row from 1968 to 1976, never looked like slipping up against the Palestinian team after taking a 2-0 lead inside 12 minutes at Education City Stadium on their way to a resounding win.
It took Karim Ansarifard two minutes to put Iran ahead against their Palestinian opponents on the way to a 4-1 rout in Al-Rayyan.
Shoja Khalilzadeh added another in the 12th and Mehdi Ghayedi made it 3-0 in the 38th.
But the loudest cheers of the game came when Palestinian player Tamer Seyam pulled a goal back in first-half stoppage time.
Sardar Azmoun made it 4-1 10 minutes after the break and, despite creating a host of chances in the second half, Iran could not add to their lead.
Palestinian player Mohammed Saleh was shown a red card for a professional foul on Azmoun in stoppage time, but that was downgraded to yellow after a video review.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong’s Philip Chan Siu Kwan scored the 1,000th goal in the history of the Asian Cup, but his team still fell to a 3-1 defeat against United Arab Emirates.
Siu Kwan briefly evened the score in the Group C game four minutes into the second half after Sultan Adil had given UAE the lead from the penalty spot in the 34th.
But it took just three minutes for UAE to regain the advantage through Zayed Sultan.
Substitute Yahya Al Ghassani struck in the fifth minute of time added on to complete the win against a Hong Kong team who are the lowest ranked in the tournament at 150th in the FIFA standings. — AP
