Uzbekistan faced Iran during the first match from World Cup Qualification Asian.
Carlos Queiroz, the head coach of Iran, surprised Iranian fans with the squad where Heydari was replaced with Mahini and Ebrahimi was playing as Iran’s central forward. Also Hadi Aghili was benched in this game. On the other side, Uzbekistan didn’t have some of its key players.
In the first 20 minutes of the game two sides were playing conservatively with keeping ball in the center of field. Using long out was one of the Iran’s tactics in these minutes. In 21′ Karpenko’s shoot saved by Iran’s GK. Inomov initiated several attacks from Iran’s right side. Uzbeks scored one goal in the first half but it was offside. Iranian goalkeeper, Rahmati, did some well saves helped Iran to keep the sheet clean.
In the second half, Iran didn’t make any opportunities to open Uzbekistan’s goal. Even in some minutes, all the 11 Iranian players were playing in the penalty box.
The Japanese referee, Nishimura, had good performance until 74′. In this minute Akhmedov scored a goal for his side but Nishimura rejected his goal. However the ball completely crossed the goal’s line.
Khalatbari, player of Al Wasl, entered the game as sub in 62′. In 93′ he scored a goal assisted by another sub Karim Ansarifard.
Totally Uzbekistan was better than Iran. But they couldn’t use their opportunities as Iran did.
In another match from the Group A, Japan defeated Oman by scoring 3 goals. Honda, Maeda and Okazaki scored for Japan.
