DOHA, Jan 15: South Korea beat Bahrain 3-1 in their Asian Cup Group E opener on Monday with Paris St Germain’s Lee Kang-in rescuing his side with a second-half brace at the Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.
With the score tied at 1-1 after goals from Hwang In-Beom and Bahrain’s Abdullah Al-Hashsash, Lee turned on the style with two lethal strikes that had the South Korean fans at the small 15,000 capacity arena screaming in delight. South Korea took the lead through a quick flowing move down the left wing where the ball was crossed into the box and Hwang curled home through a crowd of Bahrain defenders, two of whom ran into each other while tracking back. Bahrain came out fighting in the second half and they were duly rewarded six minutes in when Al-Hashsash found space in the box and slotted home into the bottom corner.
However, South Korea were not deterred and the east Asian side restored their lead five minutes later through Lee, who pulled the trigger from outside the box and saw his superb effort curl into the net.
The PSG playmaker doubled his tally soon after when he received the ball inside the box from Hwang, escaped his marker with some quick feet and showcased some panache as he curled another shot past the keeper inside the far post.
His second took him joint-top of the tournament’s scoring charts alongside Qatar’s Akram Afif and Japan’s Takumi Minamino.
JAPAN COMEBACK
Takumi Minamino scored two goals in Japan’s comeback win against Vietnam.
The former Liverpool forward opened the scoring after 11 minutes at Doha’s Al Thumama Stadium but Nguyen Dình Bac equalized in the 16th and Vietnam went ahead through Pham Tuan Hai’s goal in the 33rd.
Japan recovered when Minamino, who is now at Monaco, evened the game again in the 45th.
Keito Nakamura made it 3-2 in first-half stoppage time and substitute Ayase Ueda extended Japan’s lead in the 85th.
Indonesia plays Iraq in Group D on Monday.
IRAN DOMINATE
It took Karim Ansarifard two minutes to put Iran ahead against its Palestinian opponents on the way to a 4-1 rout in Al-Rayyan.
Shoja Khalilzadeh added another in the 12th and Mehdi Ghayedi made it 3-0 in the 38th.
But the loudest cheers of the game came when Palestinian player Tamer Seyam pulled a goal back in first-half stoppage time.
Sardar Azmoun made it 4-1 10 minutes after the break and, despite creating a host of chances in the second half, Iran could not add to its lead.
Palestinian player Mohammed Saleh was shown a red card for a professional foul on Azmoun in stoppage time, but that was downgraded to yellow after a video review.
LANDMARK GOAL
Hong Kong’s Philip Chan Siu Kwan scored the 1,000th goal in the history of the Asian Cup, but his team still fell to a 3-1 defeat against United Arab Emirates.
Chan briefly evened the score in the Group C game four minutes into the second half after Sultan Adil had given UAE the lead from the penalty spot in the 34th.
But it took just three minutes for UAE to regain the advantage through Zayed Sultan.
Substitute Yahya Al Ghassani struck in the fifth minute of time added on to complete the win against a Hong Kong team that is the lowest ranked in the tournament at 150th in the FIFA standings. (Agencies)
