Bahrain hold Qataris, Saudis come from behind
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Qatar's World Cup qualifying campaign hit a snag when they were held 1-1 by neighbourhood rivals Bahrain in their Group A clash on Wednesday.
Sebastien Soria put Qatar ahead as early as the fifth minute after receiving a long pass from deep, but the Uruguay-born striker, who has shouldered most of Qatar's burden in the forwardline throughout the qualifying phases, failed to put away a penalty later in the first half.
Bahrain were dealt a huge blow when Abdulla Marzooqi was sent off in the first session with his second yellow card of the match, but Qatar failed to nail home the numerical advantage they had.
10-man Bahrain found the equaliser when Abdulla Baba Fatadi slotted the ball home from the top of the penalty area after receiving a pass from Jaycee John.
North and South Korea cannot be seperated
Bitter rivals North Korea and South Korea fought out a 1-1 draw in their qualifier.
The Korean neighbours fought out a tedious affair played in the neutral city of Shanghai, with only about 500 fans turning up at the Hongkou Stadium.
They saw North Korean Hong Yong-Jo convert a penalty in the 63rd minute but the South's Ki Sung-Yeung scored five minutes later to salvage the draw.
Saudi Arabia overcame a 1-0 deficit to eventually beat UAE 2-1.
The Saudi's result saw them go top of Group B alongside North Korea with four points, while UAE are at the bottom of the table, yet to open their account.
Saudi captain Yasser Al Kahtani came on as a substitute in the 46th minute, and was delighted with the result.
"This is a wonderful result for us, especially after the draw against Iran. It was a superb performance from the team to come back from one goal behind," he said.
"The UAE were playing really well and putting us under a lot of pressure."
