Iran ready for anyone says Argi

AFC – FUJAIRAH, Iran coach Akbar Argi said that he wasn’t thinking about any potential quarter-final opponents and was only concerned with the quality of his team’s performance in their final group stage match against Kuwait on Wednesday.

And the 37-year-old would have been pleased with what he saw as his charges emerged from a one-sided encounter at the Fujairah Stadium with a 6-0 victory to advance to the last eight as winners of Group A.

Valid Mashay Zadeh’s 29th minute strike gave a dominant Iran a 1-0 lead to take into the broke before Argi’s side turned on the style as unanswered goals from Ehsan Pahlavan (53rd), Sardar Azmoun (58th), Hossein Fazeli (65th and 78th) and Roozbeh Cheshmi (75th) overwhelmed a Kuwait side who let frustration get the better of them in stoppage-time with Mohammad Al Bathali and Mohammad Al Enazi red carded in stoppage time.

“We were not focussing on first or second place at the group as we were only looking for the quality of the performance”, said Argi.
“The next match against Korea will be difficult but it will not much more different than the matches we played in our strong group.

“There are many teams in this tournament that play very good football and they all can fight for the title.”

Kuwait boss Ahmed Heider, meanwhile, said that his side never recovered from the first-half setback and suffered from fatigue as they chased the game in the second half.

“First I would like to congratulate the Iran team for the win and reaching the quarter-finals. Today’s match was important for both teams so we tried to end first half on level terms,” he said.

“We were affected by the first goal then the players were struggling with fatigue in the second half.

“Iran has very good players and we tried to close the gap in the first half but the first goal damaged our plans.

“I think Iran is the strongest team at the competition and I think they have good chance to win the title. But I think that Syria and Iraq will also be strong contenders”.