Willing Iranians suffer defeat against Brazil [VIDEO]

Brazil’s victory was threatened in the 7th minute as Iran striker Mohammad Gholami scored from close range. However, the Emirati referee disallowed the goal due to a wrong offside call.

The South-American giants took the lead in the 14th minute thanks to a brilliant freekick by Barcelona rightback Dani Alves.

The Brazilians showed all their class as Milan striker Robinho broke through the Iranian defense and hit the post before Pato’s rebound shot barely missed the goal.

The Iranians started the second half more aggressively and had a great opportunity to score the equalizer few minutes after the break. Javad Nekounam’s deflected shot came off the goalpost and Osasuna striker Masoud Shojaei fired the loose ball over the target from close range (49′).

Nekounam’s freekick in the 52nd minute barely missed the goal, on the other side Rahmati, who was the best Iranian player tonight, again saved a great scoring attempt by Pato.

However, 17 minutes later Pato benefited from a failed offside trap of the Iranian defense and found himself alone in front of Rahmati who was beaten by the young Brazilian striker.

Afshin Ghotbi showed a handsome gesture by subbing in veteran Karim Bagheri for an inexpressive Masoud Shojaei. Although Bagheri deserved his farewell match, it was not a wise action of Iran coach Afshin Ghotbi to sub in Bagheri for the last 20 minutes instead of giving him five minutes playing time at the beginning, as usually done in such situations. The Perspolis star was lined up as striker but barely participated in Iran’s offense.

Mehdi Rahmati again appeared in good shape as he saved a nice Nilmar shot (85′), however the Iranian national team suffered another goal one minute into extra-time. Ehsan Hajsafi’s bad man marking helped Villareal striker Nilmar to score the third and final goal for the South-Americans.

Iran had a great opportunity to bounce one back four minutes into extra-time, Milad Meydavoudi, finding himself alone in front of goalkeeper Victor after a Bagheri-throughball, wasn’t able to keep a cool head and curled the ball past the post.

Iran overall performed well in the friendly match against a strong opponent. Especially the central defense with Jalal Hosseini and Mohammad Nosrati played satisfactory and promising, making the absence of injured Hadi Aghily forgotten. The defensive midfield with Javad Nekounam, Pejman Nouri and Andranik Teymourian successfully destroyed Brazil’s build-up more often than not.

Iran’s weakness were both fullbacks, especially leftback Hajsafi severely underperformed and played one or even two classes below the international level. Offensively Iran took too little risks to trouble the South American giants more than a few times. Injured Gholamreza Rezaei and the AFC Champions League bound Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari were certainly dearly missed.

Iran – Brazil 0-3 (0-1)
Friendly, Abu Dhabi

Goals:
0-1 Alves (14′)
0-2 Pato (69′)
0-3 Nilmar (91′)

Iran: Rahmati – Heydari, Nosrati, Hosseini, Hajsafi – Teymourian, Nekounam, P. Nouri (86′ Meydavoudi) – Shojaei (73′ Bagheri), Zanidpour (60′ Mobali) – Gholami (55′ Ansarifard)

Brazil: Victor – Daniel Alves, Thiago Silva (78′ Rever), David Luiz, André Santos – Lucas (81′ Wesley), Ramires (67′ Sandro), Carlos Eduardo (60′ Giuliano) – Robinho (67′ Nilmar), Alexandre Pato, Philippe Coutinho (60′ Elias)