FIFA Friendly: Iran 2-0 Chile – Match Report [VIDEO]

Persianfootball.com – ST. POLTEN, In what could be one of Carlos Queiroz’s final matches in charge of Team Melli, a convincing Iran defeated Chile 2-0 in their FIFA friendly match held in St. Polten, Austria, with goals from Javad Nekounam and Vahid Amiri.

Team Melli kicked off their preparations for the upcoming WCQ campaign for Russia 2018 with one of the most high-profile friendly matches of recent times against Chile in St. Polten, Austria. Surrounded by controversy amid Carlos Queiroz’s announced departure days before the match was to take place, a familiar Iranian squad was selected to face one of the best performing teams from the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Although Team Melli’s starting squad consisted of many familiar faces, there was the initial surprise of seeing some new faces in Vouria Ghafouri at right-back and Vahid Amiri on the left-wing in the line-up. This official match also marked the 150th cap for Team Melli’s captain Javad Nekounam who became the highest capped player for Iran’s senior team surpassing Ali Daei, the previous holder at 149 caps.

Having not displayed their full strength side for this match-up, Chile did come with their best, with the likes of Arturo Vidal, Alexis Sanchez, David Pizarro and Gary Medel starting from the bench.

Iran kicked off the match and seemed to be on the books for an early goal. In the 5th minute, a long ball sent into the box brought about an opportunity as it seemed Nekounam was fouled in the box, but the call was ignored by the referee and play continued on which resulted in a shot from outside the box by Dejagah which was blocked by a Chilean defender.

A counter attack in the 15th min saw Ghoochannejhad chase a through ball and fend off a defender on the left. He eventually took a shot just outside the box which was comfortably held by the Chilean keeper.

Shojaei intercepted a pass and began another counter attack in the 17th which saw him combine with Dejagah and Ghoochannejhad. Shojaei eventually reclaimed the ball and made a run into the box but was sandwiched between two defenders just before getting a shot off with claims of being taken down were again ignored by the referee.

A deflected Iranian free kick saw Iran claim a corner in the 22nd minute. The corner kick, taken by Teymourian from the left corner flag, saw skipper Javad Nekounam latch on to a low volley at point blank to score the first goal of the game for Iran.

A fantastic block from a Gonzalez header in the 43rd minute by Alireza Haghighi saw Iran maintain their 1-0 lead before the conclusion of the first half. This was followed by another quick counter attack which saw Masoud Shojaei’s shot go just wide of the goal right before the half-time whistle was blown.

The first half saw Team Melli displaying very confident and disciplined football. They defended well and showed great passing, pressing and counter-attacking with Dejagah, Shojaei, Amiri and Ghoochannejhad combining well together up front.

The second half saw Chilean coach Sampaoli bring on Arsenals’ Alexis Sanchez for Orellana and Aranguiz for Pulgar as they looked to get back into the match being 1-0 down after the first 45 minutes. Team Melli made no changes going into the second period.

A great display of team passing and counter-attacking in the 50th minute saw a brilliant through ball from Masoud Shojaei to Ghoochannejhad on the right who squared the ball to the onrushing Amiri who tapped in Iran’s second goal of the night.

Chile made further changes in the 62nd minute, bringing on G.Medel, D.Pizarro, M.Isla, and R.Gutierrez for E.Rocco, R.Millar, J.Fuenzalida and M.Gonzalez respectively.

The 69th minute saw Team Melli make their first change of the game replacing M.Shojaei with O.Ebrahimi, followed by K.Ansarifard for R.Ghoochannejhad in 73rd and V.Amiri for R.Rezaeian in the 90th minutes.

Iran showed great discipline defensively throughout the match, limiting Chile to a handful of chances, with the two most dangerous being denied by keeper A.Haghighi. A very impressive performance from Iran who attacked and defended well against arguably one of the more attacking sides in world football.

Team Melli will continue their European tour with another high-profile friendly against Sweden on March 31st which will be held at the Friends Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.

Irans starting line-up:

A.Haghighi – V.Ghafouri – Pejman Montazeri – J.Hosseini – H.Beikzadeh – J.Nekounam – A.Teymourian – A.Dejagah – M.Shojaei – V.Amiri – R.Ghoochannejhad

Substitutions: M.Shojaei (O.Ebrahimi) 70′, R.Ghoochannejhad (K.Ansarifard) 74′ and V.Amiri (R.Rezaeian) 90′

Booked players: Nekounam 5′, Teymourian 84′

Goal Scorers: Nekounam 22′, Amiri 50′