Asian Cup Qualifying Wrap: Trio reach Australia
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates all qualified for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup with qualifying wins on Friday.
UAE secured their spot in Australia courtesy of a 4-0 win over Hong Kong. Salem Saleh and Walid Abbas put the Emiratis 2-0 up at half-time, with goals in the final 10 minutes from Omar Abdulrahman and Ismail Al Hamadi putting gloss on the scoreline.
Elsewhere in Group E, Uzbekistan beat Vietnam 3-0 and will secure their spot in the finals if they beat Hong Kong on Tuesday.
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia qualified with one-goal successes - 1-0 over Malaysia and 2-1 over Iraq respectively.
In Bahrain's group, Qatar require just a point from their final two outings to get through after a 4-1 triumph in Yemen, with China best-placed to join Saudi Arabia in getting out of Group C having beaten Indonesia 1-0 in Xi'an.
Iran will qualify with a point against Lebanon on Tuesday, having eased past Group B basement boys Thailand 3-0. Kuwait and Lebanon met in Kuwait City hoping to claim second spot in the group, but their 0-0 draw leaves the hosts a point ahead with two games to play.
In Group A, Syria boosted their hopes of progressing with their first three points of the campaign, beating Singapore 4-0.
The pool's top two sides, Oman and Jordan, did not meet due to the latter's involvement in their FIFA World Cup intercontinental play-off with Uruguay.
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