OSAKA/PARIS:
Crystal Palace forward Daichi Kamada scored twice for Japan and Paris Saint Germain’s Lee Kang-in netted for South Korea as the Asian giants rounded off successful World Cup qualifying campaigns in style on Tuesday.
Japan romped to a 6-0 thrashing of Patrick Kluivert’s Indonesia in Osaka, while South Korea cruised to a 4-0 win over Kuwait in Seoul where fans were treated to a late appearance by their idol Son Heung-min.
FA Cup winner Kamada struck twice in the first half for already qualified Japan, who finished as Group C winners.
Takefusa Kubo, Ryoya Morishita, Shuto Machino and substitute Mao Hosoya were also on target against Indonesia, who came fourth in the group and moved on to a further qualifying round.
Japan coach Hajime Moriyasu has set the ambitious target of winning next year’s World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
His side will play friendlies against teams from outside Asia over the next 12 months and Kamada is looking to learn from the experience.
“Playing against Asian teams and against the kind of European teams who will be at the World Cup is totally different,” said the 28-year-old.
“As we play these games, we will start to see a lot of areas where we need to improve. We need to come together as a team and overcome these problems when they crop up.”
Moriyasu said his players need to keep improving “in all departments” and praised their attitude against Indonesia.
“The challenge for the players is to break past their limits and grow,” he said.
Wang Yudong’s 90th-minute penalty enabled already eliminated China to avoid finishing bottom of Group C with a consolation 1-0 win over Bahrain in Chongqing.
Second-placed Australia will face third-placed Saudi Arabia later in Group C in Jeddah to decide the final Asian qualifier from this round.
Iran and Uzbekistan are already through to next year’s finals from Group A and Jordan will finish second in Group B to South Korea, who secured qualification last week with a game to spare.
Jeon Jin-woo, who plays in the K-League for Jeonbuk, gave South Korea a 1-0 half-time lead against Kuwait in Seoul.
Belgium battle past Wales, Italy win in World Cup qualifying
Belgium held off a battling Wales and Italy gave sacked coach Luciano Spalletti a winning send-off in World Cup qualifying on Monday.
Elsewhere Manchester City star Erling Haaland’s goal lifted Norway past Estonia, Luka Modric was among the scorers in Croatia’s 5-1 rout of the Czech Republic, and the Faroes Islands left it late to down Gibraltar 2-1.
Giacomo Raspadori and Andrea Cambiaso scored in each half as Italy beat Moldova 2-0 to inject a smidgeon of pride back in the Azzurri camp after last week’s 3-0 thrashing by Norway which cost Spalletti his job. The Italians trail Norway by nine points in European qualifying group I by nine points and are at risk of missing out on a third straight World Cup.
Even though they have played two games less their ticket to the United States, Canada and Mexico next year is far from certain.
Only top spot in each group guarantees automatic qualification with Italy’s best hopes appearing to rest on finishing second and reaching the play-offs.
“When you’re the national team coach you have no excuses, it’s you who selects the squad,” said Spalletti to public broadcaster Rai.
“It’s the coach who has to make the difference and unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that.” Over in Brussels Belgium raced to a three-goal lead over Wales courtesy of Romelu Lukaku, Youri Tielemans and Jeremy Doku inside half an hour.
Wales, though, rallied through a Harry Wilson penalty, Sorba Thomas and Brennan Johnson to stun the side ranked eighth in the world.
But De Bruyne rode to his nation’s rescue, as he has so often in a stellar career, by steering in Tielemans’ perfect cross in the 88th minute. It left Wales sitting second in Group J, one point behind North Macedonia, 1-0 winners over Kazakhstan, and three in front of Belgium, who have two games in hand. This was Wales manager Craig Bellamy’s first defeat in his first 10 matches in charge.
