October Update (ACL & WCQ)

There’ll be no October reviews from the Asian Champions League and Asian World Cup qualifying as I’ve been otherwise engaged, apologies for the absence. As an update, Guangzhou Evergrande came out on top of the Eastern ACL final, beating Gamba Osaka 2-1 on aggregate, while in the West - Al-Ahli Dubai confounded expectations by toppling Saudi giants Al-Hilal thanks to Kwon Kyung-Won late strike that sent the Emiratis through to the AFC showpiece in November.

In World Cup qualifying, big shocks came in the form of a valiant draw for Vietnam at home to a crisis hit Iraq, while Jordan went top of Group B easing to a 2-0 win over Asian champions Australia. Elsewhere, Qatar collected all three points in the key clash of Group C over China PR, while Saudi Arabia did the same over UAE. 

While the last round of matches were predominantly known for clear one sided encounters, and hefty battering’s of minnows, October’s qualifiers saw the likes of Timor-Leste pick up their second point of the campaign over Palestine, Bhutan scored three before being narrowly beaten by Maldives and Turkmenistan recorded back-to-back home victories. All is not lost as we head towards November’s qualifiers.