In the third round of World Cup qualifying, Japan won 2-0 against Saudi Arabia in Jeddah on Thursday, maintaining their perfect record.

In front of around 56,000 spectators at King Abdullah Sports City, Asia’s top team took the lead on the 14th minute when Daichi Kamada, a midfielder for Crystal Palace, struck from close range after good work from Kaoru Mitoma of Brighton & Hove Albion.

Eight minutes remaining, substitute Koki Ogawa of Japan subsequently secured the victory by heading in Junya Ito’s corner.

With the win, Japan—who have advanced to the World Cup finals seven times in the past—now leads Group C with nine points from three games.

On Tuesday, they will host Australia in Saitama.

 

Third place goes to Saudi Arabia, led by the under-fire Roberto Mancini.

Yesterday, the Socceroos overcame a 1-0 deficit to upset China and salvage their qualifying campaign, guaranteeing Tony Popovic’s tenure as coach got off to a successful start.

Lewis Miller, Craig Goodwin, and rookie Nishan Velupillay all scored goals to secure the victory for the home team, who had trailed Xie Wenneng’s strike in the 20th minute.

 

Australia moved up to third place in the group based on goal differential as Indonesia held the 2019 Gulf Cup winners to a 2-2 draw at home.

The top two teams in the six-team group advance directly to the 2026 World Cup, while the third and fourth-placed nations must go through an additional qualifying round.

The absence of captain and superstar Son Heung-min did not stop South Korea in Group B, as they defeated Jordan 2-0 in Amman to keep their perfect record going into the third round.

Son did not travel to Jordan with his national squad because he was injured last week while playing for Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League.

However, the goals from Genk attacker Oh Hyeon-gyu and Mainz midfielder Lee Jae-sung meant that South Korea won, so his absence was not noticed too much.

With the victory, which provided much-needed respite to coach Hong Myung-bo, South Korea improved to seven points out of nine in the group.

On goal differential, South Korea leads the pool ahead of Iraq, the current Gulf champions, who won 1-0 over Palestine in Basra.

With 29 goals overall, Aymen Hussein moved into the top five in Iraq’s all-time scoring lists after scoring the game’s lone goal.

In the meantime, Oman started the group strong by shocking Gulf rivals Kuwait 4-0 in Muscat.

Uzbekistan tops the Group A standings after holding the highly anticipated Iran to a scoreless draw in Tashkent, with Amir Ghalenoei’s team in second place.

After being held to a 1-1 tie by North Korea at home in Al Ain, the United Arab Emirates are currently in third place.

Asian champions Qatar completed the group with a 3-1 victory over Kyrgyzstan in Doha, their first victory of the third round.

With three back from Uzbekistan and Iran, Tintin Marquez’s side is currently in fourth place, tied with the UAE in third place on four points.