Defending champions Japan hammered Palestine 4-0 on Thursday to set up an Asian Games quarter-final clash with South Korea, while 10-man China crashed out against Thailand. Wataru Endo, Musashi Suzuki, Takuma Arano and Riki Harakawa scored the goals that ended the Palestinians' impressive run in the tournament.
In other second round games, South Korea beat Hong Kong 3-0, while Jordan dealt with Kyrgyzstan 2-0 after extra time to book their quarter-final slots. The Jordanians now play Thailand, who beat China 2-0 with two spectacular Adisak Kraisorn goals. Palestine, who won their qualifying group, struggled to create chances and their goal was soon under siege. Endo smashed home a one-two with Suzuki to make it 1-0 for Japan in the 17th minute. Suzuki headed in a right-wing cross by Harakawa for his fifth goal of the tournament midway through the first half.
Within a minute of coming on as second-half substitute for Suzuki, Arano shot home the third and in the 82nd minute, Harakawa picked up a rebound of Gakuto Notsuda's close-range effort for the fourth. Japan coach Makato Teguramori said he was now looking forward to Sunday's quarter-final against hosts South Korea, who beat Hong Kong with second-half goals from Lee Yong-Jae, Park Joo-Ho and Kim Jin-Su. The Asian Games is an under-23 event and the Palestinian full national side will play Japan again in the first match of the Asian Cup in January. Coach Abdalnasser Barakat said he was not demoralised by this defeat.
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