Lebanon 3 - United Arab Emirates 1; South Korea 1 - Kuwait 1

Group B kicked off play with a shocker in Beirut. The United Arab Emirates faced off against Lebanon, a team UAE had beaten 6-2 in a July friendly. UAE, heavy favorites to defeat the home side Lebanon, got off to a great first twenty-five minutes. A goal came at the quarter hour mark, but then UAE began to pay a heavy price for its poor conditioning, which their coach blamed on the players becoming lazy during Ramadan. Lebanon were able to equalize with a penalty goal with eight minutes left in the period, making the halftime score 1-1.

From then on, the superior will and desire of Lebanon came through with an unexpected win. A counterattack led to the winning goal seven minutes into the half, and an insurance tally was notched seven minutes from time. Lebanon made it two home wins in two home games in qualifying thus far with a 3-1 result over UAE, which led UAE to fire its coach a mere ninety minutes after the match concluded.

South Korea paid a visit to Kuwait in Kuwait City. South Korea have much reason to thank goalkeeper Jung Sung-Ryong for preventing a poor result. Kuwait fired the first shot of the match, but Jung parried it away to safety. Then, only eight minutes into the match, hat-trick hero from the first matchday Park Chu-Young scored his fourth goal of qualifying. From then on, the match heavily tilted in Kuwait's favor. To make matters worse for South Korea, star right back (and son of legend Cha Bum-Kun) Cha Du-Ri of Glasgow Celtic was lost to injury. Two more Kuwait chances went begging, and the half closed 1-0 in favor of the visitors.

Kuwait would make their superiority pay off in the second half with a goal eight minutes in, mirroring the start South Korea had to the first half. Kuwait would press and press, but no second goal came, and the Taegeuk Warriors escaped with a 1-1 draw that was a bit generous given the dominant play of the Kuwaitis.

South Korea 4 pts +6

Kuwait 4 pts +1

Lebanon 3 pts -4

United Arab Emirates 0 pts -3

Goals:

Lebanon

Mohamed Ghadar 37 PK

Akram Moghrabi 52

Roda Antar 83

United Arab Emirates

Mahmoud Al Hammadi 15

South Korea

Park Chu Young 8

Kuwait

Hussain Ali 53

Match Reports:

http://www.oberjuerge.com/http:/www.oberjuerge.com/lebanon-3-uae-1/

http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/unfit-uae-shocked-in-beirut

http://www.goal.com/en/match/64317/kuwait-vs-south-korea/report

Highlights:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b50ddjHLCPY (Lebanon v. UAE)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iF0YnMWLGU (Kuwait v. South Korea)