Australia and Iraq were in rampant goalscoring form on Tuesday as they both cruised into the next stage of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup, while Son Heung-min’s South Korea are on the brink of joining them after beating Thailand.
Australia handed out a 5-0 drubbing to Lebanon in Canberra in Group I while Iraq progressed from Group F after brushing aside the Philippines by the same score in Manila.
In Group C, Son scored as South Korea look favourites to go through after a 3-0 win against Thailand in Bangkok, while China got their qualifying hopes back on track with a 4-1 win against Singapore.
Park Jin-seob and Lee Jae-sun joined the Tottenham Hotspur star on the scoresheet and South Korea now need only a draw in Singapore in June to go through.
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Australia’s Craig Goodwin led his side to a fourth straight qualifying victory with two goals in a man-of-the-match performance, together with strikes from Kusini Yengi, John Iredale and an own goal.
“When I knew Craig Goodwin younger, he didn’t believe in himself like he does these days,” Australia coach Graham Arnold said of the 32-year-old, who also created the opener for Yengi and whose free-kick led to the own goal.
“He’s a top-quality player, but he’s a fantastic person and a great leader.
“His delivery, set pieces, is fantastic and his finishing, it’s just got better and better as he gets older.”
Palestine just need a draw with third-placed Lebanon in their next match in June to guarantee their progress from Group I.
Aymen Hussein’s 14th-minute penalty set Iraq on their way against the Philippines, ranked 139th in the world.
Amir Al Ammari’s goal and a second from centre-forward Hussein gave the visitors a 3-0 half-time lead.
They completed the job with second-half strikes from Zidane Iqbal and Zaid Tahseen to make it four wins out of four in qualifying.
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In Tianjin, China moved into second place in Group C behind South Korea after hammering Singapore 4-1 thanks to new captain Wu Lei’s double, Fei Nanduo’s second-half penalty and a late goal from Wei Shihao.
Wu took over the armband from Zhang Linpeng who was left out of the starting line-up by coach Branko Ivankovic.
The top two from each of the nine Asian groups will advance to the third round of 2026 World Cup qualifying.