Doha
Iran’s U23 team , scored its second win in as many matches in the Qatar International Friendship Tournament by beating the host Qatar 2-1 earlier today in the Grand Hamad Stadium in Doha. Two goals , one in each half by Kaveh Rezaei on the 41st minute and then Omid Alishah in the 58th minute was enough to seal the win and Qatar scored a consolation goal late in the 2nd half.
The win puts Iran in a commanding position in this tournament. A draw in its last match against Turkey is enough to win the title of this tournament and US $ 50,000.
Iran started the match is a well organized style disturbing the ball efficiently and clinically in the middle of the field. However , despite the superioriy , ball possesion percentage . and control of the midfield , TM players failed to capitalize on the chances. The offesnive moves mostly ended in the ball being lost due to wrong options, passing being cut by Qatar defenders , and lack of firmness and aggression in finishing.
Very few balls in fact reached the Qatar GK who did not have to make any serious save, despite Iranian team superiority.
In the 41st minute , a superb defense splitting pass by the captain , Mohsen Mosallman sent Kaveh Rezaei on his way to the goal in the box. The Saipa player neatly slotted the ball under the advancing Qatar Goalkeeper body to score the first goal.
In the second half Iran started as they left off with even better ball distribution. In the 58th minute a lose ball was picked up by Omid Alishah who dribbled a defender then wiggle his way and shot a cracker into the net to register Iran’s second.
With a 2 goal cushion and a match to play in 48 hours, Manosurian made several changes including the substitution of the midfield dynamo Mohsen Mosallma. The 4 changes , upset the balance of the team resulting in loss of focus and concentration. A few nervous minute ensued where Qatar took full control even with one player down layer down after a Qatari defender was red-carded by the Egyptian referee. Qatar scored from a lose ball after a corner kick , where the cleared ball from Iranian defense reached a Qatari player outside the box , his dipping shot wrong footing Piravand.
A ball ricocheted from the right post to the left before being cleared, was the closed shave Iran experienced in the dying minutes of the match.
The 5 extra minutes of injury time did not yield any further goals as Iran won a match they could have easily sealed early in the second half.
Qatar coach Marcel Van Buuren said: “The first half was very difficult
for us. We though the number 10 player in the Iranian side is a very
good player. Every time we took possession of the ball, we lost it
very quickly and if you’re not comfortable with the ball, you will
lose it easily. Fighting with players who are physically stronger made
it difficult for us to win.”
He added: “I’m proud of the team because they fought hard and managed
to score one goal seeing that Iran was winning at the time.”
Commenting on the win, Iran’s head coach Alireza Mansourian said: “It
was a very good match. Qatar’s level has improved significantly since
the last match played in Malaysia. The last few minutes of the match
were quite difficult for us.”
The final match will be played on Monday against Turkey,
QATAR vs. IRAN 1 – 2 (0-1)
Iran : Alireza Piranvand ; Amin Hajmohammadi, PouraliGanzj , Mohammadreza Khanzadeh, Zendrouh ,Saeid Lotfi , Mohsen Mosalman [62 Morteza Tabrizi], Omid Alishah, Alireza Jahanbakhsh [58’Hadi Dehghani], Kaveh , Rezaei [92′ Navid Khoshnava] , Bakhtiar Rahmani [75 Shahab Karami], [Vahid Esmarilbeigi 81 ]
Scorers : Kaveh Rezaei 41
Omid Alishah 58
Yellow cards: Amin Hajmohammadi 87 , Hadi Dehghani 94