HANOI — Japan's defense of the Asian Cup got off to a stuttering start against Qatar on Monday evening in their Group B opener in Hanoi, with Ivica Osim's men conceding a late equalizer in a 1-1 draw.
Japan's goal came slap bang on the hour mark after a period of tentative probing orchestrated by Shunsuke Nakamura. He nudged a through ball from the edge of the area for Yasuyuki Konno to run onto and the FC Tokyo man clipped a delightful cross with the outside of his right foot for Naohiro Takahara, who almost produced an aerial Cruyff-turn to finish from close range.
It looked as though Japan had done enough for the victory in the eerily empty My Dinh National Stadium. But with four minutes remaining, Yuki Abe committed a foul outside the area and from the resultant free-kick Uruguayan-born forward Sebastian Quintana lashed in a shot that took a deflection off the wall which wrong-footed keeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi.