Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Vientiane: Japan and Australia clinched their second wins in the AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016 qualifying campaign after downing the Philippines 6-0 and Laos 2-0 respectively at the National Sports Complex Stadium on Sunday.
Hiroki Noda opened the floodgates on six minutes with his first of the qualifiers, with Tsubasa Yoshihira doubling the lead on 26 minutes before scoring his second and Japan's sixth with two minutes left to play.
Yuto Iwasaki also registered a double, a 69th minute penalty and a strike only two minutes later, with substitute Koki Ogawa, who came on in the 75th minute, also getting on the scoresheet on 81 minutes.
Meanwhile, Australia scored twice either side of the half-time interval with Steve Kuzmanovski, who scored two in the Young Socceroos' 6-0 drubbing of the Philippines in their campaign opener two days earlier, breaking the deadlock with two minutes of the first half remaining before Mario Shabow struck one minute after the restart as Paul Okon’s side went top of table ahead of Japan on goal difference.
Group J hosts Laos are in third place ahead of the Philippines on goal difference with the two ASEAN side's still seeking their first points after two rounds of qualifying matches.
Ten group winners and five best second-placed teams will qualify for the finals while hosts Bahrain received an automatic qualification (total 16 teams).
If Bahrain finish top of their qualifying group or one of the five second best-placed teams, the next (6th) second-placed team will qualify for the final competition.