North Korea is facing the prospect of missing out on the Olympics this summer. Australia and South Korea also booked their places in the final qualifying round alongside resurgent Malaysia, while United Arab Emirates dashed North Korean hopes with a narrow 2-1 aggregate win.

But the biggest casualty of the night was China, who had a player sent off and a goal disallowed in Muscat before humble Oman scored three goals in extra time to run out 4-1 aggregate winners.

China, fighting to overturn a shock 1-0 deficit from the first leg in Shanghai, lost midfielder Zhang Linpeng to injury after just four minutes but managed to level the tie through Wu Xi deep into the second half.