“Granatkin Memorial Tournament great for Iran U-18”: Abbas Chamanian

Tasnim – ST.PETERSBURG, Iran U-18 football coach Abbas Chamanian said that Valentin Granatkin Memorial has been great for them to gain experience.

Iran finished 14th in the tournament, which was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia on January 8 to 21.

“After the first match I said at the press conference that the Granatkin Memorial is a great opportunity to gain important experience for us. And that’s what we managed to achieve here – we learnt a lot,” Chamanian said.

“I would like to thank everyone who is involved in making this tournament happen. I personally liked that we could analyze the way all sixteen participating teams were playing. The tournament timing looks optimal for us, because it fits the gap between the Asian Cup and the Youth World Cup,” he added.

“Coming here we knew it would be hard, harder than many other teams with regard to one-on-one duels against taller and physically stronger opponents. Nevertheless, we see the Saint Petersburg tournament as a perfect experience. I hope that it will be helpful in the future and that we’ll be able to correct mistakes that we revealed here,” he went on to say.