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Son Scores 50th Goal As South Korea Defeats Kuwait

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South Korean captain Son Heung-min celebrated a significant achievement on Thursday, recording his 50th international goal and moving his team one step closer to the World Cup.

Having missed the previous qualifiers because of injury, the Tottenham forward marked his comeback with a first-half penalty in South Korea’s 3-1 win over Kuwait. In other qualifying action, Australia and Saudi Arabia drew.

Their recent win left South Korea comfortably leading Group B with four victories and a draw from five matches, positioning them well for qualification to the 2026 World Cup in North America. The qualifying structure for Asia will see the top two teams from each of the three groups advancing to the tournament, hosted by the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

As the qualifying phase draws closer to its halfway point, South Korea wasted no time in asserting their dominance in Kuwait. In the 10th minute, Oh Se-hun opened the scoring with a powerful header.

Just nine minutes later, Son Heung-min, marking his 130th appearance for South Korea, was awarded a penalty and dispatched it with his trademark calmness to make it 2-0 to the visitors.

Mohammad Daham pulled one back for Kuwait in the 60th minute with a stunning half-volley that left the South Korean defense scrambling.

However, 14 minutes later, substitute Bae Jun-ho, who had come on to replace Son Heung-min, sealed the win for South Korea. The forward finished off a precise cross at the near post, putting the game beyond Kuwait’s reach with their third goal.

Saudi Arabia had a goal controversially disallowed in stoppage time as they played out a goalless draw with Australia in Melbourne. The outcome left both teams in a precarious position in their quest for qualification.

In his first game back in charge following the sacking of Roberto Mancini, Herve Renard thought his visitors had snatched a late winner when Sultan Al-Ghannam fired home from just inside the box in the 93rd minute.

But the flag went up with one of his Saudi teammates offside.

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“We had some good opportunities but we have to go give our opponent credit. First half we didn’t play very well,” said Socceroos coach Tony Popovic.

“We were not very good with the ball while they were sharp and energetic.

“We improved significantly in the second half, which is good,” he added.

It left Australia and Saudi Arabia level on six points in their scrap for second place in the group.

China joined them with the same number of points after scoring in the 91st-minute for a crucial 1-0 win at Bahrain.

Zhang Yuning prodded home just minutes after Bahrain had what they thought was a winner of their own ruled out by VAR for offside.

Japan can extend their lead at the top of Group C when they meet Indonesia in Jakarta on Friday.

The Eastern Updates 

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