Spurs and South Korean skipper Son missed last month's qualifiers with injury but celebrated his return with a first-half penalty in a 3-1 win at Kuwait. Victory left South Korea comfortably top of Group B with four wins and a draw after five matches and on course for the 2026 World Cup in North America.

The top two teams in each of the three Asian qualifying groups will reach the showpiece in the United States, Canada and Mexico. With this phase of qualifying approaching a halfway point, South Korea took a 10th-minute lead in Kuwait when striker Oh Se-hun rose highest to powerfully head home.

Nine minutes later it was 2-0 to the visitors after Son - playing in his 130th game for South Korea - won the penalty and then picked himself up to bury it with minimum fuss. Mohammad Daham struck on the hour to halve the deficit with a delicious half-volley.

But substitute Bae Jun-ho, who had replaced Son, made the game safe for South Korea with their third 14 minutes later when he refiled in at the near post. In Group C, Saudi Arabia had a goal disallowed in added time in a 0-0 draw against Australia in Melbourne that did neither side any favours in their bid to qualify.

In his first game back in charge following the sacking of Roberto Mancini, Herve Renard thought his visitors had snatched a late winner when Sultan Al-Ghannam fired home from just inside the box in the 93rd minute. But the flag went up with one of his Saudi teammates offside.

"We had some good opportunities but we have to go give our opponent credit. First half we didn't play very well," said Socceroos coach Tony Popovic. "We were not very good with the ball while they were sharp and energetic. We improved significantly in the second half, which is good," he added.

It left Australia and Saudi Arabia level on six points in their scrap for second place in the group. China joined them with the same number of points after scoring in the 91st minute for a crucial 1-0 win at Bahrain.

Zhang Yuning prodded home just minutes after Bahrain had what they thought was a winner of their own ruled out by VAR for offside. Japan can extend their lead at the top of Group C when they meet Indonesia in Jakarta on Friday.

Ten-man Iran hold on

Elsewhere, Iran survived a fightback from North Korea to win 3-2 and cement their spot at the top of Group A with 13 points from a maximum of 15. Mohammad Mohebi scored twice and Mehdi Ghayedi also netted as Iran went into the break in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, cruising at 3-0 up.

Iran went down to 10 men when Shojae Khalilzadeh was sent off in the 52nd minute for bringing down Ri Jo Guk as he went through on goal. North Korea made the extra man count to pull two goals back - one an own goal by Inter Milan's Mehdi Taremi - but Iran held on for a precious three points.

The Koreans are rooted to the bottom of their six-team group and have yet to taste victory in the third qualifying stage. Teams finishing third and fourth in their groups in this qualifying round go into a further phase of qualifying.

Joon-Ho Bae

Achievements