AFC: Jahanbakhsh credits perfect tactics for win

AFC – ST. PETERSBURG, Alireza Jahanbakhsh claimed Iran’s pre-match plan worked to perfection as Team Melli kicked off their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign on Friday in Saint Petersburg with an historic 1-0 win over Morocco.

Aziz Bouhaddouz’s own goal deep into injury time secured the Iranians their first win at the Finals since a 2-1 victory over the United States in France in 1998 and the AZ Alkmaar winger stressed the preparation work done in the build-up to the game was key to the historic result.

“One of the most important things was we wanted to irritate them, to stay compact and be first on the ball and don’t let them play and then we can make them pay,” said Jahanbakhsh.

“We have watched a lot of games of them in the last couple of weeks. We knew if we don’t let them play they’d become a little bit irritated and we would get chances and space behind them.

“We also got chances to score a goal and fortunately in the last minutes of added time they scored an own goal.”

Jahanbakhsh hailed the manner in which IR Iran secured the win, with Carlos Queiroz’s side putting on the kind of solid defensive display against the Moroccans that typified the team’s approach throughout Asia’s qualifying campaign.

“This win means a lot,” he said. “This is one of the best generations we have had in our country for the last couple of years and the way we made it to the World Cup, the games we played in qualification, it has been great so the expectation was already high from us.

“If we could produce the same performance here as we did in qualification for the World Cup we knew we would have a big chance, as we did against Morocco. We defended well as a team and we tried to use the counter-attacks and in the end it was a deserved win for us.”

The 24-year-old and his teammates next take on 2010 world champions Spain, who were held to a 3-3 draw by Portugal on Friday that leaves the Iranians on top of Group B after the first round of matches.

And Jahanbakhsh believes that, rather than being overawed by the Spanish, the meeting with the two-time European champions will give IR Iran a chance to test themselves against one of the game’s great sides.

“We know it’s going to be difficult playing against one of the best teams in the world,” he said. “They have some of the biggest players in the world. But it’s going to be a nice opportunity for the players to show their quality against big players, that’s a great opportunity for us.”