Shinji Okazaki's late strike gave Japan a 2-1 away victory over Oman on Wednesday, leaving the Asian champions on the brink of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Oman looked to have salvaged a point in sweltering Muscat after Ahmed Mubarak's deflected free kick 13 minutes from time cancelled out a first-half opener from Hiroshi Kiyotake.
But Okazaki pounced on a quick counter-attack in the 89th minute for runaway Group B leaders Japan, smashing home a clever flick from Yasuhito Endo from point-blank range. "I'm happy to have scored - I didn't do much else today," Okazaki told reporters. "We were made to suffer and didn't have control of the game. We really had to dig in for the result."