Almoez Ali scored twice as Qatar qualified for the quarter-finals of the AFC U23 Championship 2018 thanks to an enthralling 2-1 win against 10-man China in Group A at the Changzhou Olympic Sports Center yesterday.
The livewire striker struck in both halves following Yao Junsheng’s early effort, to send his team through to the last eight alongside second-placed Uzbekistan, while the host nation, who had captain He Chao sent off, were eliminated from the competition.
In a frenetic start to proceedings, China were ahead after only four minutes. Deng Hangwen did well to outmuscle defender Sultan al-Brake deep inside the Qatar penalty area, before finding Yao who gleefully lashed the ball home from close range.
Qatar’s response was swift however, as Almoez forced a fine sixth minute save out of China goalkeeper Zhou Yuchen, only for Wei Shihao to then flash a header narrowly over the Qatari bar following Yao’s delightful free-kick shortly after.
With Qatar slowly beginning to gain a degree of control, disaster was to strike China on 41 minutes when captain He was handed a second yellow card by referee Alireza Faghani following a foul on talismanic midfielder Akram Afif.
From the resulting free-kick, Bassam al-Rawi rattled the crossbar with a stinging effort, before parity was restored in the dying embers of a fascinating first period courtesy of Almoez’s deft header from a sublime Afif cross.
Qatar began to make the most of their numerical advantage after the break, as Afif, Almoez and Hisham Ali all launched frequent forays into the Chinese half which threatened to dampen any hopes of an East Asian revival.
China’s hopes were to be extinguished in the 77th minute when a delightful pass from Tameem
al-Muhaza found Almoez who clipped the ball over Zhou and into the net to register his third strike of the tournament.
Qatar duly survived the late scare of a Zhang Yuan shot which looped inches over the bar to claim a place in the knockout phase and keep alive their title aspirations.
 “It is a good achievement to reach the top eight in Asia. All the teams in our group were of a very high level. We conceded the goal because we were too soft, but what happened afterwards was that the players showed great personality,” said Qatar coach Felix Sanchez.
“The game changed after the red card, as China started to play in a more direct way. But we scored the second goal which was exactly what we were looking for. We are very happy and very proud. We do not have any preference who we play in our next game,” he added
China head coach Massimiliano Maddaloni rued his team’s missed opportunities. “From the beginning of this match until the 35th minute we played very well, and the players put on a very good performance. We had a chance to make it 2-0 which would have been a very good start,” he said. “Qatar are a very strong team and I am sorry that we did not make it. During half-time I tried to encourage all of my players because we were down to 10 men and said that we still had a chance. I think that during the second half we played as a team.”

Uzbekistan qualify
via Oman own goal
Changzhou: An own goal from Thani al-Rushaidi in the first half was enough to give Uzbekistan a second place finish in Group A, while Oman exited the tournament with no wins to their name.
In the opening minutes, Oman – who made six changes to their starting line-up from their previous match – looked confident playing around the tight spaces, with Mandhar al-Rawi and Marwan Awlad Wadi doing a great job in keeping the Uzbek backline nervous with their quick passes.
Eleven minutes in, al-Rawi surged down the middle but his shot was well blocked by defender Obbosjon Otakhonov.
Uzbekistan retaliated with a close attempt seven minutes later, when Azizjon Ganiev’s corner-kick found Zabikhillo Urinboev in the penalty area, but with a difficult angle his header missed to the right.