Iran beat Iran

PFDC – TEHRAN, What looks like a nonsense title actually became a sad truth two days after Nigeria scandalously cancelled the friendly match against Team Melli they had initially agreed to.

Iran’s main squad, without the players occupied with Asian Games duties, downed the reserves 4-2 in an empty Azadi stadium on Tuesday evening.

Andranik Teymourian, Javad Nekounam, Mohammad Gholami and Pejman Nouri scored the goals for the first team, whereas Mohsen Bengar and Mohammad Nouri were the goalscorers on the other side.

Iran have no further friendly matches scheduled ahead of the Asian Cup, which will kick off in January, so far, but are expected to compete at least in one final dress rehearsal ahead of the tournament, in which they will take on Iraq, North Korea and the UAE in group stage.

Below come the starting lineups of the two Iranian teams.

Iran A: Haghighi – Heydari, Aghily, Nosrati, Rahimi – Teymourian, Nekounam, P. Nouri – H. Norouzi, R. Norouzi*, Shojaei

Iran B: Roudbarian – Borjloo, Bengar, Nourmohammadi, Montazeri – Abdi, Kiani, M. Nouri – Meydavoudi, Gholami*, Zanidpour

* Reza Norouzi and Mohammad Gholami switched teams at halftime.