The home win propelled Japan to the top of Group A on the basis of head-to-head record though Ivica Osim's men were tied on 15 points with the 'sons of the desert' after six matches.

The Saudis had won the opening leg on September 3 in Jeddah 1-0, thanks to Saleh Bashir's 73rd minute goal, in their five-match win-streak.

Tanaka, who plies his trade for J-League outfit Urawa Reds, opened the scoring on 20 minutes for the hosts and Ganaha doubled the advantage nine minutes later.

Al Hilal striker Yasser Al Qahtani pulled one back from the penalty spot in the 33rd minute and the visitors looked like they had clawed their way back into the proceedings when Ganaha's second goal five minutes after the restart settled the result in Japan's favour. Reigning AFC Player of the Year Hamad Al Montashari was sent off in the last minute.

A 2-0 win over South Korea in Tehran earned Iran top spot in Group B.

Goals in the second half from Reza Enyati and Hossein Badamaki put the three-time Asian Cup winners ahead ahead of Pim Verbeek's team and into top spot with 14 points.

After a scoreless first half, Enyati opened the scoring three minutes after the restart but the Iranians had to wait until the final minute before making the game safe through Badamaki.

With qualification to next year's continental finals sealed Korea head coach Pim Verbeek was keen to use the game as a warm-up for next month's Asian Games and his 21-man squad was made up largely of the Under-23 team.

In Tashkent, Uzbekistan's midfield duo of Leonid Koshelev and Ilyas Zeytullayev scored in both halves as the Central Asians qualified for the finals after botching Qatar's perfect record with a 2-0 win.

It also proved to be Russian coach Valeri Nepomniatchi's last match in charge of Uzbekistan.

Top Uzbek team officials confirmed before the game that the 62-year-old Nepomniatchi, who took over the reins at the beginning of this year, would be stepping down irrespective of the result and the search for a new coach would start soon in earnest.

Nepomniatchi, under heavy pressure after Uzbekistan's lacklustre campaign, was first relieved of his coaching duties at Uzbek giants Pakhtakor in mid-August in order to allow him to concentrate on helping the national side qualify for the finals.

The 2004 quarterfinalists had lost the first leg to Qatar 2-1 on March 1 but all the three goals then had been scored by Qataris -- Adel Lamy and Ali Nasser in the opposite direction while Bilal Mohamed had managed to score and own goal.

Koshelev, who plays for Russian club Shinnik, fired the Uzbeks into the lead in the 31st minute before Serie B side Genoa star Zeytullayev scored what proved to be final goal of the game in the 53rd minute. Uzbekistan were forced to play without Dynamo Kiev hitman Maksim Shatskikh after he was sent-off on the hour.

Despite the defeat, Jamaluddin Musovic's men still sign off atop the group with 15 points from six games, followed by Uzbekistan on 11 points.

Ahmed Salah snatched a 1-1 draw for Iraq with his second half strike against China to help the West Asians finish on top of Group E in the AFC Asian Cup 2007 qualifying in Changsha.

Attacking midfielder Salah equalised the score with his 65th minute strike after Shandong Luneng striker Han Peng had given the hosts the lead four minutes before the break.

The Iraqis' 2-1 triumph in the opening leg combined with yesterday's draw gave them top place in the group on head-to-head after both ended with 11 points from six outings.

Both Iraq and China had made sure of their place in the finals with wins over Singapore and Palestine respectively in the previous round.

Syria blanked Chinese Taipei 3-0 while India drew 1-1 away in Yemen. The match between Singapore and Palestine, to be played in Singapore, was cancelled.

The move was necessitated after the Palestinian team failed to travel out of the country due to the heightened political tensions in Gaza. Repeated attempts to contact the Palestinian FA in this regard failed.