Qatar beat Uzbeks, UAE and Bahrain lose close-fought games

HARD FOUGHT: Qatar's Fabio Cesar (L) competes with Uzbekistan's Odil Ahmedov.

Qatar produced a scintillating display to hand Uzbekistan a crushing 3-0 defeat in Doha, Bahrain lost narrowly 3-2 to Japan in Manama while North Korea scored twice against the run of play to inflict a 2-1 defeat on hosts United Arab Emirates in an Asia 2010 World Cup qualifying matches on Saturday

Playing in hot and humid conditions, Qatar took their own time to assert their supremacy, but once they found their rhythm, it was Jorge Fossati's side all the way to begin their World Cup quest on a commanding note.

Mejdi Seddiq fired the Qataris ahead in the 37th minute with a cracking free-kick that beat Uzbek goalkeeper Ignatiy Nesterov to trigger wild celebrations in the stands.

Fossati, who is hoping to win all of Qatar's home matches, couldn't have asked for more from his side who produced several pacy runs keeping the Uzbek defence on edge throughout the match.

Uzbekistan, who qualified for the final phase of qualifying with two matches to spare, struggled in the Doha weather, hardly testing the Qatari goalkeeper Mohammed Saqr.

Qatar were even better in the second half with Sebastien Quintana's skills up front putting the Uzbek defence under tremendous pressure.

It was Quintana's brilliance that resulted in Qatar's second goal in the 72nd minute as the Uruguayan-born forward won the ball in his own half and after advancing a few paces found Majed Mohammed in the penalty area who hoodwinked two defenders to slot home.

Quintana himself came close to scoring on a couple of occasions, but was unlucky as his shots went wide after deflections inside the penalty area. Qatar put the issue beyond doubt when Talal Al-Bloushi found himself unmarked and easily beating the Uzbek goalkeeper Nesterov.

North Korea coach Kim Jong-Hun stuck to his time-tested strategy of packing the defence as his team scored their first ever win over the UAE in seven meetings.

Basheer Saeed deflected a harmless North Korean cross into his own goal in the 72nd minute and as UAE went all out on attack, substitute An Chol-Hyok took full advantage of the gaping hole in their defence in the 80th minute and rammed home a right-footer from just outside the box past goalkeeper Obaid Al-Tawila.

Saeed made up for his unfortunate mistake in the 85th minute, when his long-range kick found its way into the North Korean goal, but it was too late for Bruno Metsu's men by then.

The hosts dominated throughout the first half, but all their moves came to nothing against the Red wall inside the North Korean penalty area.

UAE created several half chances in the first half and completely dominated the proceedings. In fact, the visitors did not have even one meaningful attempt at the UAE goal in the first 50 minutes.

UAE's star striker Ismail Matter attempted a good long-range attempt in the third minute and captain Abdulraheem Juma had a chance to put his team ahead in the 10th minute, but hit his shot just wide.

The best chance for the hosts to go ahead came in the 21st minute when Mohamed Al-Shehhi made a brilliant cross from the right, but the unmarked Subait Khater agonisingly failed to connect from the middle of a vacant goalpost.

North Korea made their first couple of moves early in the second half, and their opening goal was more a case of luck.

Choe Kum-chol did well to latch on to the ball and make his way to the UAE goal from the right, but his intended cross to An was going way wide before grazing Saeed's shoulder and deflecting into the goal.

Crowd trouble held up play for more than six minutes as disappointed fans threw water bottles on to the pitch after North Korea's second goal.

The UAE's next Group 2 match is against Saudi Arabia at the same venue on Wednesday, while North Korea will be hosting neighbours South Korea at the neutral venue of Shanghai.

Japan beat Bahrain 3-2 in a pulsating opening match of the fourth and final Asian qualifying round for the 2010 World Cup.

Celtic star Shunsuke Nakamura, Yasuhito Endo and Kengo Nakamura scored for the winners while Salman Isa pulled one back for the hosts late in the match.
  Marcus Tanaka scored an own goal toward the end to give Bahrain a glimmer of hope.

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