Former Manchester United midfielder Zidane Iqbal currently plays his club football for Utrecht [Getty]
Iraq sealed a 1-0 victory over Indonesia in Jeddah on Saturday to maintain their hopes of a first World Cup appearance since 1986 as Zidane Iqbal’s second-half strike eliminated Patrick Kluivert’s side from Asia’s qualifiers for next year’s finals.
Former Manchester United midfielder Iqbal, who currently plays his club football for Utrecht, netted with 14 minutes remaining after coming off the bench at the start of the second half for Graham Arnold’s team.
The result means Iraq will face Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, with the winners of the tie qualifying for the World Cup while the runners-up advance to another round of preliminaries. Indonesia, meanwhile, have been eliminated after two losses.
“We knew it would be a tough game with the temperature and everything but this 1-0 victory will give us a lot of confidence,” said Iqbal. “It will be a tough game against Saudi Arabia but hopefully we will win.”
The Southeast Asians had looked the more likely to pick up the victory needed to keep their own World Cup dream alive.
Kevin Diks glanced his early header wide of the Iraq goal and Thom Haye was narrowly off target with a strike from distance soon after as the Indonesians made a bright start.
Mauro Zijlstra was denied his first international goal by a last-ditch tackle by Manaf Younis, the Iraq defender snuffing out the opportunity at close range as the 20-year-old forward latched onto Haye’s pass into the six-yard box.
Sherko Karim’s header that flew over the bar in the 29th minute was as close as Iraq came to troubling Indonesia goalkeeper Maarten Paes with Kluivert’s side controlling the opening 45 minutes without reward.
A mistake by Rizky Ridho was to cost the Indonesians, however, as the defender gifted Iraq possession and the ball eventually ended up at the feet of Iqbal, who slotted a perfect finish into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
Tempers flared as the final whistle approached, with Indonesia captain Jay Idzes acting as peacemaker when his side’s fans pelted the pitch with water bottles in disgust at a disputed decision by referee Ma Ning from China.
Zaid Tahseen was sent off for a second bookable offence nine minutes into stoppage time but Iraq held on to maintain their hopes of joining Japan, South Korea, Australia, Iran, Uzbekistan and Jordan as Asia’s representatives at next year’s finals.
