Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Tehran: Cambodia remain without a point in Group E of the 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers after going down 3-0 to Afghanistan on Thursday.
Mustafa Zazai, who scored the 86th minute winner as the Afghans edged Cambodia 1-0 when the two sides met in Phnom Penh earlier in the qualifiers, found the net for the second time against the South East Asians when he broke the deadlock three minutes from the interval in Thursday’s battle between the Group E strugglers,
The opener from Zazai, who plays his club football with FC St. Pauli II in the lower leagues in Germany, was all that separated the two sides until the 78th minute when Sweden-based midfielder Norlla Amiri doubled Afghanistan’s lead before Khaibar Amani sealed Cambodia’s sixth successive defeat four minutes into second-half stoppage time.
Afghanistan’s second win over Cambodia took their points tally to six, four less than third-placed Singapore, who missed the chance to take pole position in the table after the Lions went down 3-0 at home to Japan in the other Group E fixture on Thursday.
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.