MUSCAT: Oman began their Preliminary Joint Qualification \u2013 Round 2 for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 with a 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei in Group D at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Omar Al Malki found the breakthrough with a header in the 17th minute before Ahmed Al Kaabi doubled Oman\u2019s lead straight from a corner before the break. Mataz Saleh sealed the win with a late goal to help the hosts, coached by Croatian Branko Ivankovic, make a winning start to their qualification campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After a quiet opening quarter of an hour in the Omani capital, the Red Warriors pulled into the lead when centre-back Khalid Al Breiki headed a Jameel Al Yahmadi free-kick back across the goal for Al Malki to guide home in the 17th minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opportunities continued to be at a premium, but the home side came close to doubling their lead at the half hour mark when Al Yahmadi\u2019s low drive from the edge of the box was kept out by a save from Chinese Taipei goalkeeper Pan Wen-chieh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Al Malki volleyed over from 12 yards out in the 40th minute before Pan made a diving save to deny Issam Al Subhi\u2019s effort from distance. However, a mistake from the Tainan City shot-stopper from the resulting corner gave Oman a 2-0 lead at the interval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pan tried to punch away the inswinging corner delivered by Oman right-back Al Kaabi, but it slipped through his gloves into the goal to give the hosts a comfortable cushion ahead of the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pan was once again called into action five minutes after the restart when Oman\u2019s Harib Al Saadi tested his luck with a shot from 40 yards out before Ange Kouame went close for Gary White\u2019s Chinese Taipei with a shot that landed on the roof of the goal a few minutes later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Substitute Saleh ran onto a Jameel Al Yahmadi pass and finished past Pan in second-half injury time to seal the 3-0 win for Oman, who are looking to reach the third round for the second time running.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oman will now travel to Bishkek to take on Kyrgyz Republic in their next outing in Group D on November 21, while Chinese Taipei will host Malaysia on the second matchday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MUSCAT: Oman began their Preliminary Joint Qualification \u2013 Round 2 for the FIFA World Cup 2026 and AFC Asian Cup Saudi Arabia 2027 with a 3-0 win over Chinese Taipei in Group D at Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex on Thursday. Omar Al Malki found the breakthrough with a header in the 17th minute before Ahmed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2457,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455\/revisions\/2457"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmantimes.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}