Japan defeats Australia and re-shuffles the cards in the World Cup qualifiers
Japan revived its hopes of reaching the 2022 World Cup finals by beating Australia 2-1 in Group B of the Asian qualifiers today in Saitama. The Japanese team advanced early through O Tanaka (0) before Australia equalized by Eden Hrostic (70), but Australia's Aziz Behich scored a mistake in his own goal to give Japan three valuable points. Australia's balance froze at 9 points, ahead of Saudi Arabia, which will meet later with China, while Japan raised its score to 6 points in third place.
The samurai team played the match knowing full well that any result other than winning would mean the possibility of being absent from the global wedding for the first time since 1994. Japan started the match with pressure and had the opportunity to open the scoring when Wataru Ando hit a header outside the three blocks (6).
But the owners of the land opened the scoring after two minutes when Takumi Minamino passed a crawl ball inside the area, followed by Tanaka into the net.
Japan almost added the second goal, but Yuya Osako hit the ball far from the goal after making his way between more than one Australian defender (35).
Australia almost equalized, contrary to the course of play, when Adam Taggart hit a powerful ball that bounced off the post at the end of the first half.
The Australian team thought that he had received a penalty when Hrostic was obstructed inside the area, but the referee reversed his decision after reviewing the video and awarded a direct free kick on the outskirts of the area, from which Hrostic managed to tie (70).
The Japanese team threw all its weight in order to score the three points and stay in the atmosphere of competition for one of the two qualifying cards directly to the finals, and it had what it wanted with friendly fire when Behesh turned the ball into his own net four minutes before the end of the match.
And meet in this group also Oman with Vietnam later.
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