Indonesia\u2019s hopes of qualifying for FIFA World Cup is over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Zidane Iqbal struck 14 minutes from time to earn Iraq a 1-0 win over Indonesia in Group B of the AFC Asian Qualifiers at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium to dash the Indonesian dream.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Iraqi win means Graham Arnold\u2019s side will go into Tuesday\u2019s clash with Saudi Arabia knowing victory will qualify the nation for their first Finals since 1986 while Indonesia\u2019s hopes were extinguished by the narrow loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Indonesia, coached by Patrick Kluivert, will finish bottom of Group B having already suffered defeat by the Saudis in their opening game on Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Southeast Asians had made a fluent start with Calvin Verdonk seeing his attempt from distance deflected wide and, from the resulting corner, Kevin Diks glanced a header across the face of goal. Thom Haye dragged his shot off target soon after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mauro Zijlstra went closer in the 14th minute, latching on to Haye\u2019s pass into the six yard box only for Munaf Younis\u2019 last ditch tackle to deny the 20-year-old a tap-in for his first goal at international level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sherko Karim headed over the Indonesian bar in the 29th minute in a rare sight of goal for the Iraqis in the opening half hour while Dean James bent his free-kick from distance narrowly wide of Jalal Hassan\u2019s left post to bring an end to a tense first half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Youssef Amyn should have done better as the game approached the hour mark when Mohannad Ali\u2019s pass was deflected into his path but the halftime substitute sliced his left-foot shot well wide of the target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Slowly the game started to open up. Diks slid a low shot into the hands of Hassan in the 65th minute after impressive build-up play before, with 14 minutes left, the Iraqis went in front.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defender Rizky Ridho needlessly gave away possession deep inside his own half and the ball eventually ended up at the feet of Iqbal, and the former Manchester United midfielder stepped onto his left to fire a clinical strike into the bottom corner of Paes\u2019 goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iraq defender Zaid Tasheen, who had earlier picked up a yellow card for a foul on Ole Romeny, was sent off in the dying seconds for a second bookable offence after a late altercation but Iraq held on for the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, United Arab Emirates produced a remarkable turnaround to defeat Oman 2-1 in Group A.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goals in the closing minutes of the match completed a comeback with the victory meaning UAE only have to avoid defeat against Qatar on Tuesday to book their ticket to the FIFA World Cup 2026 while Oman\u2019s dreams were dashed as they ended their campaign with a single point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UAE started with Fabio Lima and Caio Lucas leading the line, while Oman made two changes from Wednesday\u2019s 1-1 draw against Qatar with Al Rawahi and Harib Al Saadi startling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oman\u2019s early pressure almost produced the opener in the sixth minute after Abdulrahman Al Mushaifri’s challenge on UAE\u2019s Abdalla Ramadan set Issam Al Sabhi through on goal but the Air Force Club forward\u2019s attempt was denied by a timely intervention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UAE, however, were left stunned in the 12th minute when Oman broke the deadlock after Amjad Al Harthi drilled home Majed Hassan\u2019s cross, which took a wicked deflection off Kouame Kouadio before settling in the back of the net.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cosmin Olaroiu\u2019s UAE almost unlocked the Omani defence in the 21st minute when Lima\u2019s lofted pass found Caio, who nodded the ball on for Nicolas Gimenez but the midfielder\u2019s effort was parried by Oman keeper Ibrahim Al Mukhaini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A poor pass from Khalid Eisa almost gifted Oman their second eight minutes later when the keeper\u2019s attempted chip was intercepted by Issam Al Sabhi, only for Eisa to recover quickly and reclaim the ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Olaroiusent on Caio Canedo, Yahia Nader and Harib Abdalla at the start of the second half and a long ball from Gimenez found Canedo, whose volley was saved by Al Mukhaini.
The Emiratis wasted their best chance just after the hour mark when Yahya Al Ghassani started a move on the left before ending his surging run down the centre by laying the ball for Gimenez, who dragged his effort wide.
UAE thought they had a lifeline in the 70th minute when Thani Al Rushaidi looked to have brought down Ali Saleh inside the box with referee Alireza Faghani pointing to the spot but the decision was overturned following a VAR review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Emiratis, however, found the equaliser six minutes later when Saleh whipped in a pin-point cross for Marcus Meloni to finish with a thumping header past Al Mukhaini.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oman pushed forward but Eisa made a brilliant save to deny Al Mushaifri from close range in the 79th minute before UAE turned up the tempo to turn the match around four minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Caio struck a curling effort from distance which dipped at the right time and bounced past a sprawling Al Mukhaini into the bottom right corner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eisa then made a brilliant save when he got his fingertips to Zahir Al Aghbari\u2019s shot from inside the box in the 89th minute as the UAE edged closer to a return to the FIFA World Cup, with their sole appearance coming in 1990. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Indonesia\u2019s hopes of qualifying for FIFA World Cup is over. Zidane Iqbal struck 14 minutes from time to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4505,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-4504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed.jpg",1067,601,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed-768x433.jpg",640,361,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed-1024x577.jpg",640,361,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed.jpg",1067,601,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed.jpg",1067,601,false],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"International<\/a>","tag_info":"International","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/iraq-red-car_compressed.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4506,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504\/revisions\/4506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4505"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.infinitysport.asia\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}