Saudi, Japan enter final

Manama : Saudi Arabia and Japan yesterday stormed into the final of the AFC U-19 Football Championship hosted in Bahrain after Saudi Arabia defeated Iran in a thrilling 6-5 victory and Japan were comfortable 3-0 winners over Vietnam to set up the final showdown on Monday.

All four teams had already known they had qualified for next year’s FIFA U-20 World Cup along with hosts South Korea to give Asia five representatives.

Japan qualified following goals by Shunta Nakamura (10th minute) and (51st) after Takeru Kishimoto (6th) had opened the scoring at the National Stadium.

At Khalifa Sports City Stadium in Isa Town, Abdulrahman Al Yami scored a hat-trick and captain Sami Al Naji scored twice while Ayman Al Khulaif was also on the scoresheet for Saad Al Shehri-coached Saudis.

The Saudis took the lead with a penalty-kick by Al Naji (18th) and three minutes before the break Al Khulaif (42nd) made it 2-0.

Iran pulled a goal back just before half-time when Reza Jafari (45th) took advantage of a sloppy Saudi defending to smash the ball beyond keeper Al Bukhari.

However, the Saudis restored their two-goal cushion right after the restart when Al Khulaif cut the ball back at the corner for Al Yami to score and straightaway Iran responded by reducing the deficit. The Saudi defence struggled to clear Abolfazl Razzaghpour’s corner and Aghasi, whose initial header was only half-cleared, struck through a crowd of players to leave the score 3-2 at the break.

Six minutes after the restart, Saudi Arabia notched up another with Al Naji (52nd) claiming his second only for Iran to pull a goal back through Reza Shekari (62nd).

In the 64th minute Al Yami scored his second as Saudi went 5-3 up, before Iranian substitute Mehdi Medhikhani reduced the deficit. Al Yami completed (76th) completed his hat-trick.