Iran gets off to flying start at Asian beach soccer meet
Iran made a winning start to its AFC Beach Soccer Championship title defense, recovering from an early deficit to defeat Group D rival Iraq 5-2 on Friday.
The 2017 FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup semifinalist took the first step to returning to the global Finals, prevailing in a spirited encounter against its neighbor to take three points, the-afc.com reported.
Ranked second in the world, the Iranians were strong favorites, but Iraq – which took just one point from three matches in 2017 – has steadily improved in recent times, and it gave an example of its progress when Sajjad Salah blasted a free kick past Hamid Behzadpour to give Iraqis second-minute lead.
For a time, Iraq’s advantage remained intact, but a series of fouls gave Iran numerous opportunities to hit back, one of which was eventually taken by Ali Mirshekari, whose eighth-minute effort flicked up off the sand to beat Mohammed Saad.
The action was fast, furious and physical, with Iran steadily growing in stature. Saad made key saves at regular intervals, but there was nothing the shot-stopper could do to stop Amir-hossein Akbari’s late strike, which made it 2-1 at the end of the opening period.
Behzadpour extended the Iran advantage in spectacular style in the 17th minute, when the goalkeeper picked out the top corner from the opposite end of the pitch, and Iran’s momentum was further underlined when Saeid Piramoun thrashed another long range effort into the upright moments later.
Moslem Mesigar blew a great chance to extend the lead when he fired a penalty into the upright in the first minute of the final period, and Salah immediately punished the miss, scoring in the very next minute to bring Iraq to within one.
But another foul conceded by Iraq gave Iran a chance it wouldn’t miss, with captain Mohammad Ahmadzadeh opening his tournament account in the 28th minute, before 2017 top scorer Mohammad-ali Mokhtari made a telling impact when he deftly headed Peyman Hosseini’s powerful long throw into the back of the net five minutes later to round out the scoring.
“This is the first step, and we achieved. A young team with big inspiration like Iraq made some difficulties for our team but we proved our condition. Now our concentration is on our next match against Oman,” said Iran’s head coach Marco Octvaio.
Iran will next play Oman on Tuesday.