The win means Saudi Arabia go into their final game against Uzbekistan with 17 points from an unbeaten run of seven matches, with a draw in four days’ time enough to secure the top spot while Singapore end the campaign on seven points.

A hard-fought win for Uzbekistan keeps them in second place, two points behind Saudi Arabia whom they face on the final matchday, while Yemen remain bottom with five points before a last match against Palestine.

Having seen Islamic Republic of Iran take provisional pole position with their win over Cambodia earlier on Friday, Iraq got the job done with a gritty win over Hong Kong to set up a classic final day tie against Team Melli on Tuesday, with the 2007 AFC Asian Cup winners only needing a draw to finish as group winners.

Iraq are on 17 points, two ahead of Iran.

Liu Binbin and Wu Lei gave their team a two-goal half-time lead before A Lan, Zhang Yuning and Tan Long completed a comfortable night’s work for a Chinese squad attempting to keep the country’s hopes of FIFA World Cup qualification alive.

The win moves China PR onto 16 points from their seven games so far and their third victory in a row means they go into their final match against group winners Syria on Tuesday with significant momentum. The result also guarantees the Philippines finish third in the group.

The five runners-up with the best records will join seven of the eight group winners – FIFA World Cup hosts Qatar will not feature in the final round despite finishing on top of Group E - in the next phase.

Mathew Leckie, Fran Karacic, Martin Boyle were on target for Graham Arnold’s side as they made it seven wins out of seven to book their spot in the final round of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and berth in the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 Finals.

Nepal, meanwhile, ended their campaign in fourth with six points.

The two teams came into this game on the back of entirely opposing fortunes: Malaysia lost their last match 4-0 against the United Arab Emirates, while Vietnam beat Indonesia 4-0 and cemented their strong position with a win, also avoiding loss so far since the Qualifiers began.