Iran suffers defeat against Guinea at home [VIDEO]

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, The Iranian football national team suffered a 1-2 defeat in a friendly against Guinea in Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on Wednesday afternoon. Whereas Team Melli’s performance in the first half turned out to be abysmal, the hosts showed more fighting spirit during the second 45 minutes.

In contrary to prior matches, Iran’s head coach Carlos Queiroz decided to play against the African non-participant of the upcoming World Cup in an unusual 4-4-2 formation. All legionnaires except for NEC Nijmegen’s Alireza Jahanbakhsh (20), Alireza Haghighi and Steven Beitashour found themselves in a rather strong starting line-up.

Esteghlal midfielder and former Premier League legionnaire Andranik Teymourian missed the friendly due to an arm injury.

Guinea unexpectedly started well in the first 20 minutes of the match infront of a nearly soulless Azadi Stadium and had a good opportunity to score the lead just after six minutes. The visitors managed to keep Iran away from the penalty area and possessed the ball most of the time.

Especially Stuttgart’s Ibrahima Traore as well as AC Milan’s Kevin Constant and Portugal legionnaire Salim Cisse worried Iran’s right side. Qatar legionnaire Pejman Montazeri (30) who played as a right-back seemed to be overchallenged at times by Guinea’s star players.

The Iranians were not able to produce potential threat for Guinea. Javad Nekounam (19′), Fulham’s Ashkan Dejagah (28′) and Zob Ahan’s Ghasem Haddadifar (29′) attempts have been denied by the Guianese goalkeeper.

In the 35th minute star midfielder Constant was not tackled in the midfield and his rather harmless shot couldn’t be saved by Braunschweig goalkeeper Daniel Davari (26). Davari who played in front of the home crowd for the very first time, had to be fully blamed for the indicatory blunder.

Only one minute after the lead for the Guianese, the Iranian goalkeeper again stood in the center of the happenings as Ibrahima Traore was free to score an amazing long shot goal although the Stuttgart midfielder was accompanied by four Iranian “defenders” who were not able to defend properly or rather not felt accountable for Traore. Davari who had no time to digest his blunder before was this time pardonable even though he was one or two steps too far away from the goal line.

After the half-time break, the Iranian national team showed a much better performance and found back to the old intensity. Carlos Queiroz proved to have a good sense for substitutions by bringing on Nijmegen midfielder Jahanbakhsh, Esteghlal midfielder Khosrow Heydari (30) and Vancouver’s Steven “Mehrdad” Beitashour who gave the whole team a boost during the second half.

Jahanbakhsh himself started well into the match with a good opportunity but his shot from close range only hit the woodwork (47′).

In the 55th minute, a classy action of Iran’s “Euro-team” Dejagah, Jahanbakhsh and Charlton’s Reza Ghoochannehjad (26) led to the celebrated goal which left the scoring side only one down (55′).

Iran played more aggressively and overall with more compulsion. Nekounam with a header and Dejagah with a shot within the penalty area had two good opportunities to achieve at least a satisfying result for Team Melli (70′).

Davari returned to old strength in a one-on-one situation and saved a shot by a Guianese striker who was again left unmarked  by the poor Iranian defence (72′).

Iran couldn’t manage to apply any further pressure and eventually had to consider itself satisfied with a 1-2 loss which could have been even higher as well.

IRAN – Guinea 1-2 (0-2)
Friendly, Tehran, Azadi Stadium

IRAN: Davari (76′ Haghighi) – Montazeri (46′ Beitashour), Hosseini, Sadeghi, Pouladi – Haddadifar (84′ Hajsafi), Nekounam – Dejagah (84′ Ansarifard), Jabbari (46′ Heydari), Shojaei (46′ Jahanbakhsh), Ghoochannejhad

GOALS:
0-1 Kevin Constant (35’/assist by Traore)
0-2 Ibrahima Traore (36′)
1-2 Reza Ghoochannejhad (55’/Dejagah)

Bookings:
Sadeghi