Tehran – Azadi Stadium.
Team Melli ended the match with Qatar in the Round 4 of FIFA World Cup Asian Zone Qualifiers with a goal-less draw at a capacity crowd in Azadi.
The vociferous crowed who packed the stadium were not enough to shake the Qatari resolve and the strictly defensive plans of the Brazilian coach of Qatar paid dividends for his team as they achieved their objective of coming out of this battle with a point in the bag.
On the other hand, Carlos Queiroz started this match with his strongest possible side which was a far cry from the Uzbekistan match. Team Melli easily controlled the proceeding and forced their style. The passing and some good running created several scoring opportunities for Team Melli. However , only one of those were serious enough to shake the Qatari’s and that was when Nekounam rattled the upright with a wonderful volley in the first half.
The strategy of Queiroz was based on crossing the balls from the right flank into the box. This scenario continued through the match. In the second half not a single cross from the flanks created any threat on the towering Qatar goalkeeper Mohammed Burhan , who had a n excellent match despite his usual time wasting antics. Karim Ansarifard seemed to be a lonely figure in the central forward role as the tight marking and poor deliveries of these crosses left him isolated and ineffective.
Team Melli insisted on that futile plan, despite its failure to yield any result or create serious threats. At no stage was there any alternative plan such as penetration from the center, or slicing defenses by one two exchanges, to break the solid Qatar defense. Introducing the last gasp winner of Uzbakistan match, Mohammad Reza Khalatbari in the second half in place of HajSafy and then Ashkan Dejageh , scorer of 2 goals against Qatar in his debut , although strengthend the offensive power of Team Melli , it failed to yield result.
From onset of the match , Paulo Atouri plan was based on very tight defense and packing the midfield not allowing the Iranians to operate freely or create threats, while depending on the skilful Khalfan Ibrahim’s pace to creat counter attacks The Qatari players executed that plan quite well, and apart from a few scares, they managed to hold tight and achieve their objectives. In the forst half , Rahmati was put to work for the fiorst and only time inthe match , when he parried a powerful header from a Qatari player.
After what many observers called a lucky win in Tashkent, this is the second consecutive match where the Portuguese coach has failed to impress. Although the performance has improved it was simply not good enough to break the defense of a team that was humiliated a few days ago by South Korea , Iran’s main opposition in the group. There is a gap developing already between the Koreans and the rest of the pack who are now leading the group with a perfect record from two wins.
For Team Melli , there is a period of 3 months to work out the faults and fill the gaps. What is quite clear at this stage is that Carlos Queiroz, despite his reputation and track record, is quite far off building a solid and reliable team that can comfortably be considered as a contenders. This is a match of two points lost , rather than one gained and the road is not going to be easier.
The next opposition is the bottom team, Lebanon, but even playing this low ranked team , is a challenge for this team and full points are not assured.
Iran 0 – 0 Qatar
FIFA World Cup Qualification – Asian Zone – Round 4\Group A.
Azadi Staduim, Tehran
Starting line-up
Iran: 1 Seyed RAHMATI (GK); 2 Khosro HEYDARI , 13 Hossein MAHINI (-54′ 21 Ashkan DEJAGAH ), 23 Mehrdad POULADI, 3 Ehsan HAJI SAFI (46′ 9 Mohammad KHALATBARI), 4 Seyed HOSSEINI , 5 Hadi AGHILI , 6 Javad NEKONAM (C) , 8 Ali KARIMI , 10 Karim ANSARI (-90’+1 17 Mazyar ZARE ), 14 Andranik TIMOTIAN
Substitutes 7 Mohsen FOROOZAN , 9 Mohammad KHALATBARI ,11 Gholam REZAEI , 12 Shahabaldin GORDAN , 15 Pejman MONTAZERI , 16 Shojae KHALILZADEH, 17 Mazyar ZARE ,18 Pejman NOURI , 19 Abolghasem DEHNAVI, 20 Mohammad EBRAHIMI , 21 Ashkan DEJAGAH , 22 Alireza HAGHIGHI
Qatar: 1 Qasem BURHAN (GK) ,3 MOHAMMED Kasola , 6 Adel MOHAMMED (-45’+1 5 Majdi SIDDIQ), 7 Younes RAHMATI , 9 Junior MARCONE , 10 Ibrahim Khalfan , 11 FABIO CESAR (-90’+3 20 Yousef Ahmad Ali), 13 Ibrahim ABDULMAJED ,14 Ibrahim AL GHANIM (C), 15 Talal ALBLOUSHI, 23 Andres QUINTANA
Substitutes 2 Hamid KHALEEFA , 4 Khaled SALEH 5 Majdi SIDDIQ , 8 Mesaad AL HAMAD, 12 Mohamed ABDELAZIZ , 16 Mohammed RAZARAK , 17 Hasan Al Haydos , 18 Mohamed EL SAYED , 19 Khaled MUFTAH , 20 Yousef Ahmad Ali , 21A hmed ABONORA , 22 Baba MALEK
Officials Referee: GREEN Peter
Assistant Referee 1: HOBSON Brad
Assistant Referee 2: MAT DAUD Mohd
Fourth official: ABDUL WAHAB Mohd