Palestine held by UAE, Australia march into Asian Cup last 16
DOHA: Palestine kept their hopes of reaching the knockout stages at the Asian Cup alive with a 1-1 draw against 10-man United Arab Emirates on Thursday while Australia booked their spot in the next round.
Uzbekistan are in a strong position to proceed too after defeating India 3-0.
Hosts and holders Qatar are already through.
A moment’s silence was held before Palestine’s match with the UAE, played against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. Most of the crowd of over 40,000 in Doha roared their support for Palestine, but the UAE opened the scoring midway through the first half through Sultan Adil’s header.
Palestine were awarded a penalty and UAE defender Khalifa Al-Hammadi was sent off in the 37th minute, but Tamer Seyam saw his spot kick saved by Khalid Eisa. Palestine equalised five minutes into the second half when UAE defender Bader Nasser headed the ball into his own goal.
But they could not go on to claim their first ever win at the Asian Cup, Eisa denying them with a series of crucial saves.
If they can achieve that first win against Hong Kong in their next game, Palestine would likely progress.
Jackson Irvine scored the only goal in a stodgy 1-0 victory over Syria to put Australia into the last 16 with a game to spare.
The sides mustered only one shot on target each in their game, but Socceroos coach Graham
Arnold dismissed the suggestion that his side had been lucky to win.
“The most important thing for us is our mentality, our work rate and keeping a clean sheet,” said Arnold, who took Australia to the last 16 of the Qatar World Cup, before losing 2-1 to eventual champions Argentina.
“Clean sheets win tournaments,” added Arnold, whose team beat India 2-0 in their opening game and are considered one of the contenders for the trophy.
Next up Australia face Uzbekistan, who are on the verge of going through after easing to a 3-0 win over India.
Uzbekistan, held 0-0 by Syria in their first game, had no such
trouble breaching India’s leaky defence.
The Uzbeks were 3-0 up at the break following a torrid first half for Igor Stimac’s men.
The Central Asians were ahead within five minutes, through an Abbosbek Fayzullaev header, a rebound from Igor Sergeev 14 minutes later and from Sherzod Nasrullaev just before half time at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.
With one round of matches to go, Australia top Group B with a perfect six points, two ahead of Uzbekistan. Syria have one point and India no points and no goals.
“If we take the goals out of the game -- which were caused by silly mistakes -- I could be happy with the performance,” said Stimac.