Iran qualify for Asian Cup and final World Cup qualifying stage [VIDEO]

Persianfootball.com – TEHRAN, Iran finished Asian Cup qualifying and World Cup qualifying round 2 with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Oman and the first position of the group, thanks to Sardar Azmoun’s first half brace.

Oman needed a win to keep the chance of qualifying as one of the best second placed teams, while Iran only needed to avoid an unrealistically high thrashing at home to remain first.

Carlos Queiroz changed the team that had beaten India 4-0 last week on three positions, with Alireza Beiranvand, Jalal Hosseini and Ashkan Dejagah filling in for Mohammad-Rashid Mazaheri, Morteza Pouraliganji and Mehdi Taremi.

As expected, Oman barely were able to put pressure on Iran’s defense, while Iran looked a bit sloppy in the attacking third.

So two corner kicks were needed to already decide the game in first half. First, Sardar Azmoun headed an Alireza Jahanbakhsh corner from the right past Al Habsi, before again Azmoun headed in an Ashkan Dejagah corner, which was slightly extended by his clubmate Saeid Ezatollahi, from the other side.

It were goals number six and seven in the seventh appearance in this qualifying campaign for the 21-year-old FK Rostov striker.

Both teams settled with the deserved result in second half, so Iran will go into next months draw as top seeded team in pot 1.

Alongside Iran, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, Qatar and Thailand qualified as group winners. Syria, Iraq, China and the UAE complete the lineup for the final stage as the four best runners-up, where the 12 teams will be divided into two groups in the official draw on April 12. The top two teams of each group will qualify for the World Cup whereas the two third-placed teams will compete for a playoff berth.

The 12 teams also already qualified for the 2019 Asian Cup finals.

Iran – Oman 2-0 (2-0)
World Cup & Asian Cup qualifying, Azadi Stadium

Goals:
1-0 Sardar Azmoun (assist by Alireza Jahanbakhsh)
2-0 Sardar Azmoun (assist by Saeid Ezatollahi)

Iran’s lineup: Beiranvand – Rezaeian, Montazeri, Hosseini, Hajsafi (81′ Taremi) – Ebrahimi, Ezatollahi – Jahanbakhsh (61′ Torabi), Dejagah, Amiri – Azmoun (61′ Ansarifard)