Japan finished top of Group B after cruising 2-0 past Qatar in their AFC U23 Asian Cup tie last night in Saudi Arabia. United Arab Emirates joined them in the quarter-finals from the group despite being held to a 1-1 stalemate by Syria .<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan, the defending champions, led from start to finish with goals from Shusuke Furuya and Ryunosuke Sato for a perfect record and will face Jordan in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan head coach Go Oiwa retained just three players from the side that beat the United Arab Emirates 3-0, while Qatar also rang in the changes with Ilidio Vale making five.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Having already secured their quarter-final berth with a match to spare, Japan dictated the tempo from the outset with Tokumo Kawai, Yudai Shimamoto and Haruta Kume all seeing their efforts thwarted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kawai went close in the 26th minute with his curling free-kick well saved by Qatar keeper Amir Hassan before Yutaka Michiwaki had his headed attempt ruled out three minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan\u2019s aggressive approach finally paid off at the half-hour mark when Shusuke Furuya rose highest to nod home Kaito Koizumi\u2019s cross from the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shimamoto came close to doubling Japan\u2019s advantage in the 51st minute when Shuto Nagano set up the Shimizu S-Pulse midfielder, only to see his stinging shot from distance saved by Hassan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Qatar almost fell further behind in the 77th minute but Shimamoto was denied by the left post before Japan ramped up the pressure with Ryunosuke Sato pouncing on a calamitous pass from Hassan to slot past the Qatar custodian three minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Japan pushed for a third with Kawai seeing his shot saved by Hassan in the 84th, while Shimamoto missed a sitter in stoppage time after hitting over the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UAE draw against Syria saw both teams tied on four points each with UAE advancing on a superior goal difference record to set up a meeting with Vietnam on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was a positive start to the game for both sides with UAE\u2019s Hazim Abbas curling a free-kick just wide before Anas Dahhan found Mahmoud Alaswad in the box but the Syria captain slipped at the crucial moment and the chance was gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The end-to-end action continued with Ali Al Memari\u2019s glancing header saved by Maksim Sarraf while at the other end, Dahhan\u2019s deflected shot drew a fantastic reaction save from Khaled Tawhid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UAE found the opener in the 23rd minute when Ahmad Faqa\u2019s back pass to Sarraf was intercepted by Mansoor Almenhali who set up Al Memari for an easy tap-in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Syria looked to respond – most notably through Alaswad – who weaved into the box but his low strike was read by Tawhid with the score unchanged at the half-time whistle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A refreshed Syria appeared for the second half, Mohammad Almustafa\u2019s 53rd minute header forcing Tawhid to make a fine save but it was only a matter of time before the equaliser came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Two minutes after that, Syria were back on level terms with Hozan Osman\u2019s cross from the left sidefooted home by Mahmoud Alomar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Unfortunately for Syria, that was the best they could muster with UAE keeping them at bay for the remainder of the match to go through to the last eight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Japan finished top of Group B after cruising 2-0 past Qatar in their AFC U23 Asian Cup tie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7934,"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":[7],"tags":[63],"class_list":["post-7933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-football"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t