AFC.com

The home side went a player down when Soleimani Shojaei was dismissed for his second yellow card in the 56th minute, but Nekounam fired home the winner after the Koreans had failed to deal with a free-kick to give his side three crucial points.

It was the first win and goal for Carlos Queiroz’s side since their fortunate 1-0 away victory over Uzbekistan in their Group A opener in June and made amends for their disappointing 1-0 loss in Lebanon last month.

“We deserved to win this match although I confess that both teams played really well,” said Iran assistant coach Antonio Simoes, who attended the post-match press conference instead of Queiroz, who had been sent off by the referee.

“We trained hard during the past two weeks to get every player mentally and physically ready for the match, and once again, I believe we deserved all three points from the match.

“Above all it is the Iranian nation who deserved this win. When you beat a strong team like Korea Republic with 10 players on the field, this match will stick in everyone’s mind forever,” added the 69-year-old Portuguese.

“We can’t divide the match into two parts where we played better and where we didn’t. Prior to the goal, we were trying to score and we were looking to make the best of every chance we had and fortunately we managed to do so. Tonight out main priority was to win the match in which we succeeded very well.”

For Korea, it was also the first competitive defeat under coach Choi Kang-hee although they remain at the top of the table on goal difference.

There was plenty of good movement from both teams early on but the first chance did not arrive until the 14th minute when a diagonal pass from the right found Mohammad Nori but he stabbed his attempt wide before being saved embarrassment by the linesman flag.

Belgium-based Reza Ghoochannejhad made his debut for Team Melli and the striker, who is set to join Standard Liege in January, almost marked it with a goal as his low drive from the edge of the box forced Jung Sung-ryong into a good save.

As the half progressed, Korea began to take charge of the match with the dead-ball delivery of Ki Sung-yueng causing huge problems for the Iranian defence.

In the 26th minute, the Swansea midfielder swung in a free-kick from the left that an unmarked Kim Shin-wook headed over the crossbar and shortly afterwards, he delivered a free-kick from the other flank which caused confusion in the home side’s defence which ended with Kim Bo-kyung’s header being touched onto the crossbar by goalkeeper Mehdi Rahmati

Another Ki free-kick in the 34th minute resulted in a scramble inside the Iran box during which Kim Shin-wook saw his shot stopped by Rahmati and Park Chu-young had his effort blocked by the massed Iranian defence.

On the stroke of half-time, Ki’s corner from the right picked out skipper Kwak Tae-hwi but his header came back off the crossbar.

The match took a dramatic turn in the 56th minute when Shojaei, who had already been booked early in the second half, flew in with a two-footed challenge on Oh Beom-seok and was sent-off.

However, the sending-off appeared to galvanise the home side as their 10 men began to control proceedings and Ghoochannejhad sent an overhead kick from 10 yards out over the crossbar before Nekounam saw his header tipped over the crossbar by Jung.

But the Iranian breakthrough finally arrived in the 76th minute as the Korean defence were unable to deal with a free-kick from the right allowing Anderanik Teymourian to divert the ball back out towards the penalty spot for an unmarked Nekounam to lash the ball into the bottom corner.

Roared on by a capacity crowd at Azadi Stadium, Iran defended heroically in the closing minutes and Korea’s best chance of an equaliser fell to Yun Suk-young, who curled the ball from outside the area just over the crossbar with five minutes remaining.

“We’d created many opportunities which we never used and on the other side, Iran converted their only chance into the winning goal of the night,” said Choi.

“We took the upper hand in the match, but we failed to benefit from our dominance despite having young and confident players. From the beginning of the match, we had the game under control and we even struck the post, but Iran managed to make the best of their chance.

“It was a difficult night for us. However, despite the defeat, I don’t believe all of our chances are gone and we still have games to make up for this one.”