Jordan beats Syria 2-1 in final Asian Cup qualifier

AMMAN –– Jordan beat Syria 2-1 on Wednesday in its final Group A of the 2015 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup qualifier. 

Striker Thaer Bawab opened the scoring for Jordan in the 24th minute and added the second in the 60th minute. 

Omar Khraibeen scored for Syria in the 10 minutes before the end of the match, which was played in Amman International Stadium. 

Jordan has already secured qualification for tournament –– to be held in Australia –– after booking the second spot from the group led by Oman. 

Syria needed a win against Jordan to keep itself in contention for the best third-placed finish. 

Since first taking part in Asian Cup qualifiers in 1972, Jordan reaches the Asian finals for the third time. 

Jordan played in the finals twice before. In the 13th Asian Cup, it lost to Japan in the quarter-finals and jumped to the best-ever FIFA rank of 37th in August 2004. In 2011, Jordan again reached the quarter-finals where it lost to Uzbekistan in 2-1.

Jordan lately finished runners-up at the 8th West Asian Football Federation Championship after losing to Qatar 2-0 in the final.