Iran U22 beat Kuwait in Asian qualifying opener

PFDC – KUALA LUMPUR, Defender Amin Hajmohammadi gave Iran a good start into the AFC U22 championship qualifying, scoring a 76th minute winner against Kuwait on Saturday.

Alireza Mansourian’s men are also grouped with Qatar, Bahrain, Maldives and Tajikistan in the competition which is played out as a tournament in Malaysia between June 23 and July 3.

The youngsters, who, led by the likes of Mohsen Mosalman (pictured), Payam Sadeghian, Yaghoub Karimi and Mohammad-Reza Khanzadeh, had dominated Kuwait but failed to capitalze on numerous chances, will already on Monday take on Qatar, who scored a 2-0 win over Maldives today.

In the third match of matchday 1, Bahrain narrowly defeated Tajikistan 2-1.

The top two of the group will directly qualify for the finals whereas the third placed team would follow the couple should they be the best third placed team of all seven groups.