Singapore beat Malaysia to reach third round of AWC qualifiers

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KUALA LUMPUR: Singapore beat arch-rivals Malaysia 6-4 on aggregate to reach the third round of the Asian World Cup qualifiers on Thursday after a tense 1-1 away draw
while regional heavyweights Iran and Saudi Arabia cruised through.

The trio, and the 12 other second round winners on Thursday, joined Australia, South Korea, Japan, North Korea and Bahrain in the hat for the third round, a group stage featuring five pools of four teams, to be drawn in Brazil on Saturday.

Malaysian fans had turned out in force at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil with 85,000, filling seats, aisles and gangways in a desperate bid to catch a glimpse of the eagerly
anticipated causeway derby.

The game sprang to life in the 58th minute when Malaysian striker Safee Sali opened the scoring in controversial circumstances after the referee appeared to signal for a
free-kick to the visitors only to then wave play on and allow the home side to score.

Singapore manager Raddy Avramovic had to be restrained on the sidelines as he protested in vain to the referee but just 15 minutes later the visitors were level after Shi Jiayi fired home to kill the tie and silence the vociferous home support.

The final minutes were played out with water bottles being thrown from the crowd towards the pitch as home fans became incensed at what they felt was time wasting by the Singaporeans, who suffered a number of injuries in the final 15 minutes.

Gulf Cup champions Kuwait endured some nervy moments in Manila after falling a goal behind to Philippines but second half strikes from Yousef Naser and Waleed Jumah helped them win 2-1 on the night and 5-1 on aggregate.

There were ugly scenes in Myanmar where Oman advanced 4-0 on aggregate after the second leg of their clash was abandoned after 40 minutes because of crowd trouble. The Asian Football Confederation were scheduled to hold an executive committee
meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Friday where a penalty could be handed out to the home side.

India and United Arab Emirates survived atrocious conditions to complete their tie with the Gulf side claiming a 2-2 draw to advance 5-2 on aggregate.

The pitch at the Ambedkar stadium resembled a swimming pool after heavy rains lashed the field in New Delhi with the ball not rolling along the ground making passing impossible.

Also claiming a 2-2 draw to advance were Thailand who edged out Palestine 3-2 on aggregate.

The second round of Asian qualifiers provided some mismatches with Jordan enjoying their climb up the himalayas to claim a 1-1 away draw in Nepal to complete an easy 10-1 win over the two legs.

Uzbekistan won 3-0 against Kyrgyzstan thanks to two goals from substitute Bahodir Nasimov for a 7-0 aggregate win.

But it was China, whose only World Cup finals appearance came in 2002, who were the biggest second round winners, hammering Laos 6-1 away to advance with a 13-3 aggregate.