AMMAN, Jordan — Despite missing injured English Premier League stars Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan, South Korea beat Jordan 2-0 and topped its group in Asian World Cup qualifying on Thursday.
Son injured his hamstring in action for Tottenham in September but Hwang of Wolverhampton had to be helped off the field after just 20 minutes in Amman.
Without the big name attackers, Lee Jae-sung headed the opener for Korea and Oh Hyeon-gyu sealed the win after the break to keep the team on course for an 11th successive World Cup appearance.
“Son Heung-min is not playing in attack so we had a plan B,” Korea coach Hong Myung-bo said. “Hwang Hee-chan got off to a good start, but unfortunately got injured and had to leave the field. Given his current injury status, it will be difficult for Hwang Hee-chan to play in the second game (against Iraq on Tuesday) but we will check on his condition.”
Jordan stayed third in Group B while Iraq was second, level on points with Korea after defeating the Palestinian team 1-0 in Basra. Oman defeated Kuwait 4-0.
In Group C, Australia got its campaign back on track by beating China 3-1 in coach Tony Popovic’s first game in charge.
PHOTOS: South Korea handles Jordan without star forwards and Australia wins in Popovic's first game
The Socceroos picked up just one point from their opening two games in September, and they feared the worst after 19 minutes at Adelaide Oval.
Xie Wenneng ran onto a Zhang Yuning header to shoot powerfully into the net and silence the majority of the 46,000-strong crowd.
Australia, aiming for a sixth straight World Cup appearance, struggled to turn possession into clear chances but, just before the break, Lewis Miller headed Craig Goodwin’s free kick into the net for his first international goal.
Goodwin fired home a spectacular second from outside the area eight minutes after the restart to put Australia ahead 2-1. Nishan Velupillay added a third in stoppage time on debut to confirm China’s third loss in three games.
“We were close to a point in this game,” China coach Branko Ivankovic said. “So what we need to do now is to carry on … keep our passion and fight for our next game, which is really important. The real fighting is just about to start.”
Japan beat Saudi Arabia 2-0 in Jeddah to stay top of the group with three wins from three. Crystal Palace’s Daichi Kamada scored from close range after 14 minutes and Koki Ogawa headed a late second.
That result left Saudi Arabia, Australia and Bahrain, which drew with Indonesia 2-2, all with four points.
Group A leaders Uzbekistan and Iran, for which Saleh Hardani was sent off after 57 minutes, drew 0-0 in Tashkent and have seven points each.
United Arab Emirates drew with North Korea 1-1 to stay third, and 2022 World Cup host Qatar collected its first win, defeating Kyrgyzstan 3-1 to move into fourth.
The top two from each of the three six-team groups qualify directly for the World Cup while the third- and fourth-place finishers advance to a fourth stage of qualification to compete for Asia’s two remaining automatic berths.
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