Iran overwhelms Jordan

GROUP D: Iran 4-1 Jordan
Overwhelming Group D favourites Iran ran out comfortable winners in the end against fellow Middle East opponents Jordan. But the score conceals a less-than-comfortable evening for the home side, who struggled to find their form and nearly came unstuck at the Azadi stadium in Tehran. A superb strike by Moyed Mansour after just three minutes stunned the 60,000 fans at the outset and set the tone for a tense match. Nikbakht, Karimi, Majidi and Nekounam then all failed to find a way past the Jordanian keeper, and as the game went into stoppage time at the end of the first period, the away side looked to be heading for the changing rooms with a precious lead to protect.

That was without counting on the evergreen and ever-dangerous Ali Daei. The Iranian striker nicked the ball off the feet of a defender in the box, swivelled and buried his shot. The sense of relief was palpable, and the expectation around the ground at the pause was that the goal would open the floodgates. Nothing of the kind – the Iranians were just as edgy, and just after the break Mansour came within a whisker of putting Jordan back in front, only for Mirzapour to deny him with a smart save. Iran coach Homayoun Shahrokhi had seen enough and decided drastic action was required. He threw on youngsters Kazemian and Mobali, and watched with delight as the newcomers began sowing panic in the Jordanian defence and Nikbakht-Vahedi at last put the home side ahead from a corner.

Only then did things go according to script. Mobali flashed a left-foot drive past the Jordanian keeper for the Iranian third and Ali Daei rounded off the scoring with a magnificent diving header. As expected, the Iranians top the group on goal difference from Lebanon. Shahrokhi, who declared “I will serve my national side like a soldier” when he took over as coach can be satisfied with his troops, who head to Amman for the return game against Jordan on 26 September.