Late Ghoochannejhad goal saves Iran [VIDEO]

Persianfootball.com – BRISBANE, An injury time goal from substitute striker Reza Ghoochannejhad secured a 1-0 win for Iran over Persian Gulf neighbours UAE in the contest for the top spot in group C.

With both sides already having qualified for the quarter-finals, the match-up would decide who wins the group and thereby most likely avoids Japan in knockout stage, although the title holders are neither certainly trhough nor certainly first yet.

Due to the UAE’s impressive 4-1 opening win, Iran was trailing their small neighbour on goal difference, but as expected did not rush forward, but sticked to Carlos Queiroz’s meanwhile classic “defense first, last and always” approach.

The Portuguese had admitted he might have to make some matchday changes to his lineup due to knocks and fatigue, and indeed the so far very influential Ashkan Dejagah, Masoud Shojaei, Ehsan Hajsafi and Vouri Ghafouri remained on the bench, being replaced by Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Soroush Rafiei, Vahid Amiri and Khosro Heydari.

While the UAE did their best to set new possession records in first half, they didn’t manage to create a single clear scoring opportunity, while Iran had four chances to break the deadlock.

Within three minutes, shooting-stars Sardar Azmoun (15′, 16′) and Alireza Jahanbakhsh (18′) wasted three excellent opportunities, while Azmoun’s effort moments before halftime was cleared by a defender’s chest shortly ahead of the goalline.

Second half saw Iran slightly more active, but less dangerous, with Jahanbakhsh vollying a promising effor well wide being the only real chance before the UAE had their only dangerous effort 12 minutes from time, but Mabkhout firing the ball over the crossbar.

Over the complete match, the dominant UAE shouldn’t get one single effort on Iran’s goal.

Iran on the other hand made most of their fourth and final attempt on target, after Morteza Pouraliganji was denied on his team’s third by Nasser in UAE’s goal.

After one of Iran’s many corner kicks and a poor clearance, Andranik Teymourian crossed the ball back into the area, where Ghoochannejhad had beaten die lackluster offside trap and headed home the late winner, much to the joy of the once more fantastic crowd in the stadium.

Team Melli will next take on the second placed team of group D (Iraq, Jordan or Japan) in a quarter-final in Canberra on Friday, two and a half hours earlier than the previous three matches were kicked off.

Iran – UAE 1-0 (0-0)
Asian Cup 2015, Group C, Brisbane

Goal: 1-0 Reza Ghoochannejhad (90′ / assist by Andranik Teymourian)

Iran’s lineup: Haghighi – Heydari (62′ Dejagah), Hosseini, Pouraliganji, Pooladi – Nekounam – Jahanbakhsh (57′ Ghafouri), Teymourian, Rafiei, Amiri – Azmoun (72′ Ghoochannejhad)

Iranian players booked (noone suspended for quarter-finals, yellows deleted before semis): Javad Nekounam, Sardar Azmoun, Mehrdad Pouladi