World Cup qualifying wrap: Iran, Saudi Arabia post wins

Iran and Saudi Arabia recorded comfortable wins in the first legs of their Asian Football Confederation World Cup qualifiers.

A brace from centre-forward Karim Ansarifard helped Iran to a 4-0 win at home to the Maldives in the second round of qualifying on Saturday.

Forward Ali Karimi and Saeid Daghighi also struck as Iran scored three times in the last half an hour.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia scored three quick goals in their 3-0 win over Hong Kong in Dammam.

Forward Nasser Al-Shamrani netted in the first minute of first-half injury time before defender Osama Al-Muwallad doubled their advantage prior to the interval.

Al-Shamrani completed his brace two minutes into the second half.

Elsewhere, Iraq recorded an important 2-0 win over Yemen at home.

Hawar Mulla Mohammed found the net after nine minutes, before Alaa Al-Zahra doubled their advantage just after the hour mark.

In other games, goals from Mohammed Kasola, Meshal Mubarak and Yusef Ali helped Qatar beat Vietnam 3-0 in Doha.

Jordan hammered Nepal 9-0 as Hassan Abdel Fattah netted four times, while Yang Xu hit a hat-trick in China’s 7-2 win over Laos.

Singapore beat Malaysia 5-3 in an entertaining game while Uzbekistan eased past Kyrgyzstan 4-0.

Other first-leg winners included Thailand, Lebanon, Kuwait, Oman, Syria and the United Arab Emirates.

The only draw was played in Ashgabat where Turkmenistan were held to a 1-1 stalemate by Indonesia.