Bangkok.

Team Melli scored an easy win away in Bangkok against Thailand in matchday four of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers. Ashakan Dejagah , Reza Ghoochannejad and Alireza Jahanbaksh scored Iran goals in the 3-0 win which cemented Iran’s lead of group “B” with 10 points.

Despite the dire need for a positive result at home, the Thai team hardly showed any initiative or urgency allowing Iran to comfortably control the game’s rhythm. However, despite this control Team Melli first shot in anger against the Thai goalkeeper did not come until the 26^th minute when Ghoochannejad shot was parried by the goalkeeper.

Two minutes later, Ashakan Dejgah scored the opener after the Thai defense failed to clear a ball , allowing Dejagah all the time in the world to slot the ball and scored Iran’s first.

Reza Ghoochannejad continued his prolific scoring record with Team Melli when he scored his team 2^nd goal on the 42^nd minute of the half. This was the 7^th goal for Ghoochannejad in 9 matches for Team Melli.

The first half ended 2-0 leaving the Thai team a mountain to climb.

As expected, in the second half all that Iran did was to consolidate the result with an eye on the next match in Beirut in 5 days. Again, Iran had more of the ball and fully controlled the midfield. Despite the substitutions by Thailand coach to energize his midfield which was well marshaled by Nekounam and Teymourian, those changes failed to change the outcome of the match which was always progressing towards Iran.

Late substitutions by Queiroz saw Khalatbary , Ansarifard and Jahanbakhsh  replacing Jabbari , Ghoochannejad and Shojaei. It was the substitutes Khaltabary and Jahanbaskh who combined late into injury time for Iran’s 3^rd goal. Khalatbary fine work on the flank saw him dribble past his marker right on the line before squaring to Jahanbakhsh who slotted the ball past the helpless Thai goalkeeper. It was Jahanbakhsh first goal in his only the 2^nd match as a substitute.

The match saw the debut of the German based Goalkeeper Daniel Davari and also the first full match for Mehrdad “Steven”Beitashour.  Despite a few hiccups in the first half , nothing of a serious kind, Davari was quite solid in the second and easily dealt with everything the Thai threw at him. Beitashour also played a solid match and managed a few crosses from the flank.

The trigger happy Australian referee, Ben Willimas, showed multiple cards for both teams including a late straight red card for the Thailand forward who tackled Ehsan Hajysafy just outside the box. .

The result of the match between Lebanon and Kuwait will determine if Iran has qualified for the finals of FC Asian Cup 2015.

Iran now leads the table with 10 points ahead of Kuwait’s 5 and Lebanon 4. Thailand is out of the competition.

Teams	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	PTS
IRAN	4	3	1	0	11	2	9	10
KUWAIT	3	1	2	0	5	3	2	5
LEBANON	3	1	1	1	6	8	-2	4
THAILAND	4	0	0	4	4	13	-9	0

Bangkok

Iran’s Football head coach , Carlos Queiroz believes that the Asian Nations need to “Wake Up” in the aftermath of the humiliating defeat of Jordan against Uruguay in Amman, in the inter-continental play-off for the FIFA World Cup 2014.

Speaking in the pre-game press conference, Queiroz said that “Iran has qualified for the World Cup . We have a major responsibility to represent Asia, because we do not represent Iran only but also represent Asia.”

commenting on the match , the Portuguese coach said  “will try to use this match against Thailand to improve our skills and our football to be able to play in the World Cup”. He also indicated that his team will be missing 3 major players, however in the short time available, there was no major selection changes possible .

Queiroz declined to answer a question about how Iran will perform in the World Cup and said that he prefers to focus on the match against Thailand.

Queiroz diplomatically declined to comment on the complaint letter by FFIRI against the Thai hosting and said that this is not part of his duties.  On his views of Thailand national team , Queiroz said ” I watched several matches of Thailand with China and Lebanon and of course the last match that we played with them in Tehran. I believe they are a good team and offensive minded. We all saw how they never gave up ion Tehran and managed to score a goal against us late in that game. I know that we will have a tough match tomorrow. The records also show that we have not been successful in Thailand, which will increase the burden on us.”

Iran is currently leading the table of Group B of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers with 7 points followed by Kuwait and Lebanon. Thailand is pointless after 3 games and this match is a must win for them if they want to keep their hopes alive in the group. Thailand will be depending on  Teerasil Dangda , the ex-Muang Thong United player who has joined Atletico Madrid on a year long loan , to provide the goals.

Alireza Mansourian , Iran’s U-22 team head coach announced the list of 24 players who are selected for the training camp.

The team will start training on Saturday 9th November in preparation for the inaugural AFC U 22 Asian Championship which will be held in Oman.

 

1	Akbar Imani	Zob Ahan
2	Alireza Biranvand	Naft Tehran
3	Amin Haj Mohammadi	Naft Tehran
4	Fardin Abedini	Esteghlal Tehran
5	Farshad Ahmadzadeh	Tractorsazi Tabriz
6	Farzin Garosiyan	Mes Tabriz
7	Hadi Mohammadi	Damash Gilan
8	Iman Sadeghi	Malavan Bandar Anzali
9	Kaveh Rezaei	Saipa Alborz
10	Masoud HasanZadeh	Damash Gilan
11	Mehdi Shiri	Malavan Bandar Anzali
12	Milad Gharibi	Perspolis
13	MohamadReza Khanzadeh	Perspolis
14	Mohammad Ansari	Fajr Sepasi
15	Mohsen Mosallman	Zob Ahan
16	Morteza Pouraliganji	Naft Tehran
17	Morteza Tabrizi	Zob Ahan
18	Omid Alishah	Perspolis
19	Payam Sadeghian	Perspolis
20	Saeed Ismail-Beigi	Mes Kerman
21	Saman Nariman-Jahan	Mes Kerman
22	Seyed Hossein Hosseini	Esteghlal Tehran
23	Shahab Karami	Foolad Khuzestan
24	Shahriyar Shirvand	Tractorsazi Tabriz