As the stars turned and night fell, the second round of the Group B of the Asian qualifying round of the World Qualifiers resumed, with all three matches ending in 1-0 scores. The only splash of color was the Chinese men's soccer team's regrettable 0-1 loss to Japan, while Oman and Saudi Arabia met with the same scoreline and Vietnam narrowly lost to Australia 0-1.
Oman failed to repeat the miracle of the first match against Japan. In the 42nd minute, Saudi Arabia beat Oman 1-0 after a clever heel pass from Al-Muwallad on the right side of the penalty area led to a low shot from Shehri on the right side of the penalty area to the near corner of the goal.
Vietnam's performance in this round is also worthy of praise. As an emerging force in Asian soccer, Vietnam has entered the Asian 12-team World Cup for the first time and is currently ranked 92nd in the world and 13th in Asia. facing Australia, which is ranked 35th in the world and 3rd in Asia, the Vietnamese team has demonstrated remarkable strength.
Despite the contrasting strengths, Vietnam had a remarkable performance in the match. Throughout the match, Vietnam created 11 shots on goal compared to Australia's six, two of which were on target, even one more than Australia. In contrast, China had zero shots on goal against Australia and eventually lost 0-3.
After two rounds of competition, China is now at the bottom of the Group B table with 0 points and a minus 4 goal difference, behind Vietnam who also have 0 points but a minus 3 goal difference.
Meanwhile, in Group A, South Korea narrowly defeated Lebanon 1-0, Syria and the UAE played to a 1-1 draw, and Iraq went down 0-3 to Iran.
