Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Pekanbaru: Group E qualifiers of the AFC U-22 Championship 2013 opened on Thursday with Japan, Australia and Singapore becoming the first winners after beating Macau 6-0, hosts Indonesia 1-0 and Timor Leste 2-1 respectively.
The group is the last group to play after all the other six groups finished earlier with 12 teams, the groups’ leaders and second-best teams, already advancing to the tournament proper to be held on 11-26 January 2014.
Yasushi Yoshida’s team scored rampantly against Macau with Musashi Suzuki getting in a hat-trick (52, 65, 83 minutes) and Ryuji Hirota (18 minutes), Hiroki Akino (25 minutes) and Daiki Watari (68 minutes) also on the scoresheet.
Mike Wong-led Singapore bulged Timor Leste’s net through Muhammad Fareez Farhan (44 minutes) and Madhu Mohana (81 minutes) with Diogo Santos Rangel converting his penalty kick for Timor Leste’s solitary goal after 66 minutes.
The Australians led by head coach Paul Okon scored their lone goal against the hosts though a penalty by Anthony Proia after 45+2 minutes.
Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Syria, IR Iran, Kuwait, Jordan, Uzbekistan, DPR Korea, China PR, Korea Republic and Myanmar have advanced to the finals after the conclusion of their group stages. Group E will finish on July 15 and its top two teams will join the 12 sides in the final stage.