“I’d prefer to have drawn with Man United or Inter”: Alireza Jahanbakhsh

Tehran Times – ALKMAAR, Iranian international winger, who is currently playing for Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, stated that he would have preferred to draw with big teams like Inter or Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League.

“I’d have preferred to draw in a group with Manchester United or Inter so we could play against big teams. Last season’s Europa League was the first experience for most of our players and we’re definitely going to have a better performance this year,” says Jahanbakhsh.

“I’m also glad to see Sardar Azmoun and Saeed Ezatollahi in the Champions League playing against big teams like Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid. This will improve their qualities while at the end, Iran national team will benefit from this,” he added.

Alkmaar has been pitted against Irish side Dundalk and Russian giant FC Zenit in Group D of the UEFA Europa League.

The 23-year old winger believes that Iran could beat Qatar in the first step of the World Cup qualifying match in front of 100,000 Iranian fans at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on Thursday.

“The first game in these kind of tournaments are always tough. I hope we could beat Qatar in front of our fans at Azadi stadium. We know we have a difficult way through the World Cup but we need to prove ourselves,” Jahanbakhsh added.

The Persians will play Qatar in the first game of 2018 World Cup qualification third round on September 1 while it has to face China five days later in Shenyang, more than 6,000 kilometer away.

Iran has been drawn in Group A of the World Cup qualification along with Uzbekistan, China, Qatar and Syria.