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Qatar Wins in Asian Group C World Cup Qualifiers
Seeded Qatar met little difficulties by overwhelming Malaysia 5-1 to rank in first place in Group C in World Cup Asian zone qualifying round which opened Sunday in Hong Kong.
Also on Sunday, hosts Hong Kong, China, was held to a 1-1 draw with Palestine, which is ranked 170 in the world, in the other Group 3 match.
This is the first game that Palestine has played since their last appearance in World Cup in 1934.
Emad Ayoub Abou El Kair scored the game's first goal in the 63rd minute for Palestine after catching a cross from teammate.
Nine minutes later, forward Chan Ho Man headed home an equalizer for hosts, 123 in world ranking.
"I am a little bit disappointed about our team's performance today. We expected to take three points from this game, but unfortunately we lost two," said Arie Van de Zouwen from Holland, head coach of Hong Kong, China.
Qatar, ranked 100 in the world, totally controlled the game against Malaysians from the beginning to the end. Forward Mohamed Salem Al-Enazi scored a hat-trick for his team.
Though winning the game, Qatar's head coach Dzemal Hadziabdic of Bosnia said he was not satisfied with his team because it had not performed as he expected.
On Thursday, Hong Kong, China, will play Malaysia and Qatar take on Palestine.
The top team in each of the 10 Asian groups advances to the final qualifying round. Two or three teams from Asia will qualify for the 2002 World Cup finals in South Korea and Japan, while South Korea and Japan qualify as hosts.
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