Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Bishkek: Anton Zemlianuhin’s second-half strike was enough to give Kyrgyzstan their third win in Group B of the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers as the Central Asians edged second-placed Jordan 1-0 on Tuesday.
With Australia easing to a 4-0 win over bottom-of-the-table Bangladesh earlier on Tuesday taking the AFC Asian Cup holders’ points tally to 15, a victory for Jordan at the Dolen Omurzakov Stadium would see the Hashemite Kingdom leapfrog the Socceroos into pole position in the Group B standings, with both side having played six matches.
However, after Serbia-based Zemlianuhin putting Kyrgyzstan 1-0 up three minutes into the second half with his his fourth goal of the qualifiers and Jordan unable to find a response to the Radnički Niš left-winger’s opener, Paul Put’s side stays put in second place with 13 points, two more than Kyrgyzstan who have played a game more than the West Asians.
The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup.