Iraq took a fourth minute lead through Hussein Sadeq’s strike, but tournament debutants Afghanistan recovered almost immediately to score the equaliser a minute later with Ali Zahidi finding the back of the net.

In the 14th minute, Iraq were awarded a penalty when Al Jasim Elaibi was brought down in the box, and Qasim stepped up to convert the spot-kick which was eventually the winning goal, sending their travelling fans into a frenzy.

“I always wish to score goals and I have thought about the way I would do my celebration, but the goal I scored from the penalty spot helped my team to win and harvest the three points, and that’s the important factor,” said Qasim. “It isn’t what I gave to myself but what I gave to my team.”

Choi opened the scoring in the 43rd minute to give Korea Republic the lead going into the break, while Hong Yun-sang doubled their advantage in the 52nd minute before Choi scored his second goal of the night in the 68th to seal the win.

“It’s great to win three points, I’m happy for myself and the team as well,” the 16-year-old midfielder told the-AFC.com. “In general, we are happy with the win and the performance.

“In terms of improvement, we should have more concentration in defence, as I think there were times where we made some simple mistakes. So if we improve on that, it would be okay. We just need to recover well and prepare for the next game.”

The focus was on Iraq but it was Afghanistan who started the brighter and in the opening seconds, Ali Zahidi latched onto the ball following Abdul Munir Hazrati’s pass but the midfielder fired his effort over the bar.

Iraq responded brilliantly as just two minutes later, Hussein Sadeq Rasetmee found the net with a brilliant lob over Afghanistan goalkeeper Mashal Musaferzada.

Australia were the faster to settle and controlled the early possession and created scoring opportunities but the opening goal eluded them.

Korea Republic were happy to sit back but looked dangerous on the break as Hong Yun-sang showed when dribbled past several defenders en route to goal but he pulled his effort high off target in the fourth minute.

DPR Korea took the lead through Kim Kang-song’s 20th minute strike, before Ahmad Semreen leveled the scores 11 minutes later but Jordan trailed again going into the break with Kang-song’s 45th minute goal.

Jordan eventually equalised in the second half with Amer Rasem Adel Jamous finding the back of the net in the 75th minute.

Thailand took the lead just 45 seconds into the match through Waragon Thongbai, but the young Samurai Blue didn’t flinch and found the equaliser five minutes later through Araki Ryotaro.

“Even though we conceded inside the first minute, we still had a whole 90 minutes left to play so we were quite confident of scoring. Even when they scored first, we stayed calm and steady,” said Japan captain Riku.