SEOUL (AP) — Five days after facing each other in the Premier League, Son Heung-min and Hwang Hee-chan joined forces and were both on target as South Korea kicked off its bid to reach the 2026 World Cup with a 5-0 win over Singapore in Seoul.
Asia’s leading teams joined World Cup qualifying in the second round on Thursday with Australia and Japan also starting with comfortable wins.
On Saturday, Hwang's Wolverhampton beat Son's Tottenham 2-1, and against Singapore Hwang scored the second goal. Cho Gue-song had broken the deadlock just before the break to get Korea’s campaign to appear at an 11th successive World Cup off to a good start.
Hwang, who has scored six Premier League goals for Wolves so far this season, headed Cho’s cross home after 49 minutes.
Soon after, Son, who has scored eight league goals this season, treated more than 60,000 fans to a spectacular strike with a curled shot from the edge of the area. Hwang Ui-jo added a fourth from the penalty spot while Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Lee Kang-in completed the victory.
The Socceroos, chasing a seventh appearance on the global stage, thrashed Bangladesh 7-0 in Melbourne.
Leicester defender Harry Souttar opened the scoring for Australia after just four minutes with Brandon Borrello and two goals from Mitchell Duke giving Australia a 4-0 lead at the break. Jamie Maclaren scored a second-half hat trick.
Feyenoord forward Ayase Ueda also scored three as Japan beat Myanmar 5-0 in Osaka. Ueda netted twice before the break and once after while Lazio midfielder Daichi Kamada and Ritsu Doan also got on the scoresheet. It was the seventh successive win for Japan who have appeared at the last seven World Cups.
The top two teams from each of the nine groups of four in the second round will progress to the third stage.
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