Taipei City: Thailand opened up a six-point gap at the top of Group F in the second round of 2018 FIFA World Cup/2019 AFC Asian Cup joint-qualifiers on Tuesday when Teerasil Dangda’s first-half double secured a 2-0 win over Chinese Taipei.
Having already defeated Vietnam 1-0 in the Group F opener at the Rajamangala Stadium in Bangkok, the ASEAN champions were looking to follow up that victory over their regional rivals by picking up all three points on the road against a Chinese Taipei side that had to see off Brunei in the first preliminary round to take their place in the second phase of qualifying.
Teerasil, who became the first Thai footballer to play in Spain’s top flight La Liga during a loan spell with Almeria, put Thailand 1-0 up in the 21st minute before scoring what transpired to be the final goal at the Taipei Municipal Stadium with six minutes of the first half left to play.
The victory moved Thailand up to six points in four-team Group F to put the pressure on 2007 AFC Asian Cup winners Iraq, who have yet to kick-off their qualifying campaign.
The participating teams will compete according to a double round robin format, with the Round 2 qualification matches being held between June 11, 2015 and March 29, 2016.
The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the 2019 AFC Asian Cup finals and the final round of qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
The next best 24 teams from the preliminary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots (12 slots or 11 slots + 1 slot for the host) in the 24-team 2019 Asian Cup.
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