Asian Cup Sunday

Two more Asian Cup qualifiers took place today, but didn’t quite produce the outcome expected.

In Amman group E was thrown wide open when bottom side Jordan beat table toppers Iran 1-0 at home thanks to a late winner from Amer Deeb to claim their first win of the campaign.

Thanks to playing this match on a non-FIFA designated international day, Iran were missing some of their foreign based stars and it showed as they were unable to break through Jordan’s defence. The win was hailed slightly melodramatically as the “turning point for Jordanian football” by the coach Adnan Hamad. That remains to be seen but Jordan have given themselves a chance to qualify now.

However, Iran still top the group and are still odds on to qualify and I would expect that to still be in first place.

In the day’s other match things were slightly more straightforward with China beating Lebanon at home, although the 1-0 scoreline gives an indication of how the hosts struggled against a resolute Lebanese defence. The result though means that Syria and China have group D almost wrapped up.