Historic win for Iran

AFC – TEHRAN, Iran received a massive psychological boost in their preparations for the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011™ when they defeated Korea Republic 1-0 in a warm-up match on Tuesday.

This was Iran’s first victory in Korea over the Taeguk Warriors after 39 years. Their last victory came here in 1971 when they won 2-0 in an international game.

Osasuna midfielder Masoud Shojaei scored the match-winner in the 33rd minute on a counter attack and gave Team Melli their second successive victory following their 2-0 victory over China last week.

Korea, who defeated Nigeria 2-1 under new coach Cho Kwang-rae recently, started on the offensive from the beginning and could have opened the scoring in the second minute but Lee Chung-yong’s close-range shot struck goalkeeper Mehdi Rahmati’s leg and bounced off the target.

Javad Nekounam had an open chance in the 14th minute but his weak shot was collected easily by Korean custodian Jung Sung-ryong.

Iran coach Afshin Ghotbi was happy with the result.

“I am very happy that we won today. Korea is a very difficult team to beat but we got confidence from this result that Iran can be a top team in Asia again,” he said.

Cho, however, was satisfied with his players’ performance.

“I thank the players who did their best. We wanted to show good passing game but the ground condition was not that good,” he said.

Korean captain and Manchester United midfielder Park Ji-sung said: “It’s a pity that we could not win today but we did our best. The most important thing is that we understood and tried to show what the coach wants.”

Iran have been pooled with defending champions Iraq, DPR Korea and UAE in the continental showpiece while Korea Republic will play Australia, India and Bahrain.