Saitama: Hiroshi Kiyotake’s first-half penalty and a Genki Haraguchi strike ten minutes from time handed Japan a 2-1 win over Saudi Arabia to move the Samurai Blue level with the West Asian outfit at the top of Group B as the race for automatic qualification spots for the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 heats up.
Kiyotake (pictured above, middle) won and then calmly converted the 45 minutes spot kick to send Japan to the break with a narrow lead before Haraguchi scored for the fourth straight match in the 80 minutes.
Defender Omar Hawsawi grabbed a 90 minutes goal for the Saudis but Japan withstood some strong late pressure to collect maximum points in front of another sellout crowd at Saitama Stadium.....
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