Iran opened drew the first blood in 16th minute, when Mohammad Sharaifi scored off a free kick. Khodamoradi doubled the lead for Iran in the dying minutes of 1st half when he scored from a long ranger. India had a chance to score their first goal of the match when Ninthoi cut down the left and entered the box only to be thwarted by opposition's goal keeper, Meraj Esmaeli.
Nikolai Adams, India's Head Coach, substituted Aniket for Sanjiv at the start of 2nd half and Rahul for Ninthoi in the 68th minute to step up the against the Iranians. This had an immediate effect and India won two corners and one free kick in a span of three minutes, but failed to convert any. Iran scored the third goal in the 57th minute, when Ghaderi scored off a diving header.
At the Post Match conference, Nikolai Adams congratulated the winning teams and said, "We look forward to having rematch against Iran in AFC U16 Finals next year in India."
"With due respect to Iran, we played much stronger Teams during the exposure teams in Germany and even won. To win a game like this you need to play without making mistakes which we were not able to."
"It was in the last 20 minutes that we played Football. The second goal at the stroke of interval killed us." he stated.
He also pointed about the knack of playing long balls by both the teams and said, "It was not a good match for both the sides as there were plenty of long balls played by both the sides while players from this age should play more on the pitch."
Indian Team will be playing their last match of the Qualifiers against Lebanon on Sunday, September 20 and will -try to win the match to end their campaign on a happier note.
0 Comments