Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Kaohsiung: Iraq remained in second spot in Group F of the FIFA World Cup 2018/AFC Asian Cup 2019 joint-qualifiers after defeating hosts Chinese Taipei 2-0 at the National Stadium on Tuesday.
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Dhurgham Ismael, who netted his first senior team international goal in Iraq’s quarter-final win over Iran at the AFC Asian Cup 2015, opened the scoring with his second international goal on 19 minutes.
Iraq skipper Younus Mahmoud scored Iraq’s second in the 85th minute with his fourth of the qualifiers before being replaced by Karrar Jasim a minute later as the 2007 AFC Asian Cup champions picked up their second win of the campaign to sit on eight points, five adrift of table toppers Thailand.
Chinese Taipei, meanwhile, are rooted to bottom of the group without a point after the Iraqis consigned them to their fifth straight loss.
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.