Indian football team fails
to make quarters
India crashed out of the football competition at the Asian Games after Bahrain scored a 5-0 victory over Palestine and finished as the best second placed team from among Groups B, C and D on Saturday.
Both Bahrain and India finished with six points, but a better goal difference of +5, compared to India's +3, gave the West Asian team one of the two berths reserved for the best second-placed teams in the quarter-finals.
North Korea was the other team to advance to the quarters as the best second-placed team from Group A, E and F.
The quarter-final line-up: China vs Japan, Iran vs Kuwait, South Korea vs Bahrain, Thailand vs North Korea.
In other matches of the day, defending champions Iran reached the last eight after a 1-1 draw with Qatar gave them top spot in group E; Kuwait beat North Korea 2-0; Lebanon beat Afghanistan 11-0; Hong Kong beat Pakistan 3-0; Japan beat Uzbekistan 1-0.
Hosts South Korea, China and Thailand had already qualified.
Iran, who rested veteran striker Ali Daei, had midfielder Ali Badavi to thank for the point they needed to qualify as group winners. He equalised on 34 minutes when he pounced to fire home from 15 metres following a scramble in the penalty area.
Qatar had taken the lead two minutes earlier at the Masan Sports complex when defender Ibrahim Abdula Al-Ghanim diverted the ball into the net off his backside after a left-wing cross.
Qatar could have gone in front before that when a centre from midfielder Wesam Rizik Abdulmajid was turned against the post by Iranian defender Saeid Lotfi as he tried to cut out the cross.
Qatar looked lively as they pressed for a second goal after the break but Iran's goalkeeper Mohammad Nosrati was alert to any danger and made several fine saves to keep the scores level.
In the other group E match Afghanistan lost 11-0 to Lebanon, though both teams were already out of the running for a place in the last eight before Saturday's game.
Afghanistan conceded 32 goals in their three matches as they returned to international competition for the first time in eight years after the fall of the Taliban regime.
