OSAKA (Reuters) - Japan, South Korea and Australia all notched up comfortable wins on Thursday as the second phase of Asia's preliminaries for the 2026 World Cup kicked off for the region's dominant nations with few surprises and a flurry of goals.
Japan's Ayase Ueda scored a hat-trick as a largely second-string side defeated Myanmar 5-0 after Hajime Moriyasu chose to leave many of his leading performers on the bench ahead of their more exacting Group B clash with Syria in Jeddah on Tuesday.
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