Qataris stun Uzbeks

Qatar upset the form book to overcome Uzbekistan 3-0 at the Al Sadd Stadium in Doha as it got its World Cup Qualifying campaign off to an impressive start.

The talented Uzbeks have been tipped to claim one of the automatic qualifying spots but Majdi Siddiq, Magid Mohamed and Talal Al Bloushi did the damage for the home side in its opening Group One encounter.

The result means that if Australia happens to beat Uzbekistan in their World Cup qualifier in Tashkent on Wednesday, it will take a three-point advantage over the highly-fancied central Asian team with a game in hand.

Javad Nekounam headed home an equaliser nine minutes from time as Iran held Saudi Arabia to a 1-1 draw in their opening Group Two match.

Saad Al Harthi gave Saudi Arabia a 29th-minute lead but Nekounam's late leveller ensured that the spoils were shared at King Fahad International Stadium in Riyadh.

A fine finish from substitute An Chol-hyok helped North Korea to a 2-1 victory over the United Arab Emirates at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

A 65th-minute own goal from Basheer Saeed gave the visitors the lead in the Group Two encounter before An doubled up 10 minutes from the end.

Saeed partially made amends with a deflected strike to pull a goal back in the 85th minute after the game had been held up for five minutes as missiles rained down onto the pitch but it ultimately proved too little too late for the hosts.

Japan enjoyed a winning start to the final round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers, surviving a late fightback for a 3-2 away victory over 10-man Bahrain at the National Stadium in Manama.

First-half goals by Shunsuke Nakamura and Yasuhito Endo gave Takeshi Okada's side a 2-0 lead and it looked set for the three points when Kengo Nakamura extended the advantage to three with six minutes remaining.

But Bahrain almost snatched an unlikely point as a Salman Isa strike and Marcus Tulio Tanaka's own goal narrowed the deficit in the dying minutes.