Doha: Pinyo Inpinit ’s 84th minute equaliser salvaged a deserved point as Thailand claimed a 1-1 draw with Saudi Arabia in the teams’ Group B opener at the AFC U23 Championship at Grand Hamad Stadium today.

Pinyo’s late strike cancelled out Mohammad Al Saiari’s 71st minute header while Kiatisuk Senamuang’s side also had goalkeeper Somporn Yos to thank after saving a penalty in the first half.

Somporn pulled off a fine save in the 12th minute after referee Mohammad Abdulla Hassan had pointed to the spot following Adison Promrak’s foul on Al Saiari only for Mustafa Al Bassas to see his attempt from 12 yards pushed onto the crossbar.

The Thais though had more than enough opportunities to put themselves on the scoreboard with Pinyo twice unable to find the back of the net in a five minute spell that also saw Thitiphan Puangjan shoot across the face of goal.

Somporn was again on hand to rescue the Thais in the 27th minute when he somehow managed to move across his goal to keep out Fahad Al Muwallad’s close range effort after Mohamed Kanno’s low curling cross unlocked the South East Asian side’s defence.

Pakorn Prempak should have done better with his attempt from the edge of the penalty area while at the other end Abdulmajeed Al Sulayhim turned the Thai defence only to fire over the bar.

Chenrop Samphaodi missed the target with two more efforts in the opening half of the second period and they were opportunities that the Thais were to rue spurning when Al Saiari headed home in the 71st minute to give the Saudis a barely deserved lead.

But with just six minutes remaining the Thais finally found the back of the net as Pinyo raced in on Ahmad Al Harbi’s goal before slotting his shot into the bottom corner to send the Thai fans delirious.

Meanwhile Ali Faez and Ali Hisny scored quickfire goals at the end of the first half as defending champions Iraq made the ideal start to the AFC U23 Championship with a comfortable 2-0 win over Yemen at Suhaim Bin Hamed Stadium yesterday.

Centre-back Faez opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 36 minutes of the Group C opener before midfielder Hisny added a second from close range just three minutes later.

And despite Humam Tareq seeing a second half penalty saved for Iraq who beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in the final of the AFC U-22 Championship two years ago Shahad Abdulghani’s side claimed a deserved three points.

“At the beginning as with all opening games the match was full of tension and at the beginning we were a little tense against a Yemen opponent who are not easy opponents. But I am satisfied with the performance and most importantly we scored and we won and we got the three points as that was the objective and the target for tonight” said Iraq coach Abdulghani.

“We played well in the second half and going for the goal but the turning point was the missed penalty and the performance after the penalty went down. We as the technical staff also changed some of the players to allow them to rest as some of the players are not at the top level to allow them to prepare for the next matches.”

In the next matches of Gropup C on January 16 Yemen taken on Korea Republic and Uzbekistan face Iraq. Two teams from each group qualify for the quarter-finals which will be a knock out affair.