Hassan Al Haydos scored twice and set up another as Qatar kept their slim hopes of qualifying for next year's FIFA World Cup finals alive with a thrilling 3-2 win over Korea Republic on Tuesday.
Al Haydos scored the winner 16 minutes from time having seen the Koreans come back from going two goals down to level the game with strikes from Ki Sung-yueng and Hwang Hee-chan after Al Haydos and Akram Afif had put Qatar in control.
The win moves the Qataris, who are now fifth in the Group A standings, onto seven points from eight games, some five points behind third-placed Uzbekistan. In turn, Qatar’s win now keeps Uzbekistan’s World Cup automatic berth alive, despite poor display loss to Iran a day earlier.
Al Haydos put Qatar in front with a perfectly taken free-kick 25 minutes into the game and Afif doubled his side’s lead after a neat one-two with the Al Sadd midfielder that allowed the Sporting Gijon man to strike in the 51st minute.
Ki and Hwang netted in the 62nd and 70th minutes to level the scores before Al Haydos received Rodrigo Tabata’s through ball on the edge of the area and he slotted his effort past Kwoun Sun-tae to give Qatar a famous win.
