A STUNNING strike from Anton Zemlyanukhin has delivered Kyrgyzstan a 1-0 victory over Jordan, giving Australia’s World Cup qualifying hopes a massive boost in the process.
Zemlyanukhin’s decisive goal came shortly after half time, controlling a tricky pass before showing great skill and speed to turn and beat multiple defenders before finishing with his left foot.
The result meant Kyrgyzstan remained in third place in Group B but moved to 11 points, just two behind Jordan who missed a golden opportunity to regain the Group B lead off Australia.
The Socceroos trailed Jordan heading into the night before demolishing Bangladesh 4-0 to jump to first place on 15 points.
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READ NOWAustralia has two matches left to play in this round of qualifying, against Tajikistan and Jordan on home soil in March.
Full results from joint qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup and 2019 Asian Cup on Tuesday:
Group A: East Timor 0 Saudi Arabia 10 (Al Sahlawi 29-pen, 42, 55-pen, 70, 89, Hawsawi 34, Al Shehri 35, Al Jassim 85, Hazazi 90, Al Muwallad 90+2); Malaysia 1 (Baddrol 59) UAE 2 (Abdulrahman 22, Abdel Khalil 52)
Group B: Bangladesh 0 Australia 4 (Cahill 6, 32, 37, Jedinak 43); Kyrgyzstan 1 (Zemlianukhin 48) Jordan 0
Group C: Hong Kong 0 China 0; Bhutan 0 Qatar 3 (Muntari 22, Al Haidos 36, 90)
Group D: Guam 0 Iran 6 (Taremi 12, 63, Kamyabinia 32, Rezaian 49, Shojaei 52-pen, Ansarifard 53); Turkmenistan 2 (Gevorkyan 40, Muhadov 67) Oman 1 (Al Ghasany 70)
Group E: Singapore 1 (Safuwan 89-pen) Syria 2 (Khribin 20, 90+3); Cambodia 0 Japan 2 (Khoun 51 OG, Honda 90)
Group F: Taiwan 0 Iraq 2 (Ismail 19, Mahmoud 85)
Group G: Laos 0 South Korea 5 (Ki Sung-Yueng 3-pen, 33, Son Heung-Min 35, 67, Suk Hyun-Jun 43)
Group H: North Korea 2 (Pak Kwang-Ryong 45+1-pen, Jong Il-Gwan 90+3); Bahrain 0 Yemen 1 (Al Sarori 90+2) Uzbekistan 3 (Hayderov 7, Djeperov 31, Andreev 50)