Iran braced for stern Qatar challenge

The AFC.com – Sydney, Qatar’s heavy defeat at the hands of the United Arab Emirates has not lulled Iran coach Carlos Queiroz into expecting anything other than a challenging encounter when his team face off against the Persian Gulf Cup holders in their Group C meeting at Stadium Australia on Thursday.

The UAE handed the Qataris a 4-1 thrashing in their clash in Canberra on Sunday while Iran earned a 2-0 victory over Bahrain in Melbourne that leaves Team Melli knowing victory over Djamel Belmadi’s side will take them into the quarter-finals.

Queiroz has a full squad available to him after Andranik Teymourian shook off the effects of fatigue from the opening game, with cramping keeping him out of Tuesday’s training session, and the Portuguese coach believes his side face a tough challenge against the 2011 quarter-finalists.

“The game was one of those games, it’s a result that happens. It could go in both directions,” said the former Real Madrid coach. “UAE played well. They played the aces they should play, but the result does not show exactly what happened in the game. We don’t follow that trend.

“Qatar are a good team with good players, good coaches and in the last 14 games they won eight games and drew four and only lost against UAE and in another game. That shows that the team is very strong, they are a good team that will create a lot of problems for us for sure. We know the quality of the Qatar team.

“But the most important thing for us is knowing that you play Qatar tomorrow, and to know what we’re going to do tomorrow. It’s not about Qatar tomorrow (Thursday), it’s about us and how we’re going to express our game and play and have fun and play quality football and put that on the pitch.

“I prefer to be focused on my team, not so much concerned on the team from Qatar. We know they had a bad result, but bad results don’t show that a team is bad, just like a good result doesn’t show a team is good. Since yesterday we have only had one thing in mind: the Iran national team and how we are going to play against Qatar.“

Iran impressed in their opening game of the tournament and Queiroz will be encouraging his players to express themselves in a similar manner against the Qataris.

“We try to put in practice on the pitch a simple and accurate plan,” he said. “We have a team, we need to express our football with discipline with organisation and with something special in mind, to do our best in 90 minutes to try and win the game and this is the plan. This is what I used to say to my players.

“According to the limits of the team spirit and the team principles they must express themselves and fly and swim free because they have a team behind them and they must play for them. The plan is simple. They know we have in front of us one national team with a very, very deep and strong preparation.

“Fourteen games in the legs is a serious preparation to play this Asian Cup. Good players. They have achieved good results in the last 14 games, so we know that the answer can be: Do it together, united and together as a team.”