São Paulo – Saudi Arabia said farewell to the Brazilian World Cup in 2014 on Wednesday (29) on being defeated by Australia in the last round of the third phase of the Asian Qualifiers. Also on Wednesday (29), Qatar, Lebanon, Oman, Iraq and Jordan classified for the next phase. Qatar is managed by the Brazilian Paulo Autuori.
Saudi Arabia depended only on itself to advance to the fourth phase of the Qualification Rounds in the away match against Australia. However, they lost 4 to 2. The Australians even scored three goals in four minutes.
In the same group as the Saudis, Oman defeated Thailand, which had already been eliminated, by 2 x 0 and advanced. In the B group, Lebanon classified in second place, despite having lost to the United Arab Emirates by 4 x 2. In the same group, South Korea classified in first, after defeating Kuwait by 2 x 0.
In the E group, in turn, Bahrain scored the largest number of goals in the third phase of the Asian Qualifiers, defeating the already eliminated Indonesia by 10 x 0. However, the country will not be going to the Cup. The second place in the group went to Qatar, which classified after a 2 x 2 draw with Iran in the last minutes of Autuori’s first match in charge of the team. The team in the first place in each group is classified. In this group, Iran was first, followed by Qatar.
Autuori was announced as the new Qatari coach on the 19th. The team had been coachless since December, when the also Brazilian Sebastião Lazaroni was dismissed, having been taken on a few months earlier. Autuori had already trained the country’s Olympic team for five months. The coach has also already managed the Peruvian national team and won the World Inter-Club championship when he was coaching the São Paulo team, in 2005. Another Brazilian, the former Flamengo midfielder, Zico, is coaching another Arab team. He has been in charge of Iraq since the second half of 2011. On Wednesday, the team Zico manages defeated Singapore by 7 x 1.
The ten teams classified to the fourth phase of the Qualifying rounds will be divided into two groups. The top two will immediately be qualified and the two third place teams will face each other in two matches. The winner will compete with the fifth place in the South American qualifiers. The ten teams classified to the next round are South Korea, Iran, Australia, Uzbekistan and Japan, as well as Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Iraq and Jordan.
*Translated by Mark Ament
