Yangon: A substitute for a substitute Chenrop Samphaodi scored Thailand’s winner to conclude a 2-1 comeback victory over Iran in the AFC U-19 Championship Group A opener at Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium on Thursday.

Iran took the lead only 15 minutes into the game through an Amir Mazloum strike but that was cancelled out by second-half substitute Tanasith Siripala (pictured) on 65 minutes, who once he was substituted himself, gave way for Chenrop Samphaodi to score in the 82nd minute.

After beating one of the favourites for Group A, Thailand will now face the home fans when they play host nation Myanmar on Saturday.

Despite heading into the dressing room at half time trailing their opponents, Thai coach Sasom Pobprasert said he never felt despondent.

“Iran is a good team with many big strong players but I listened to my soul, I believed my team could play a good passing game and I encouraged them to follow that belief,” said Sasom.

“We had some luck, Iran hit the post a number of times, but if you believe you can play then you must, at only 1-0 down I knew we could bring this back if we fought.”

Iran came out the stronger team and dominated chances in the first-half and a great reaction save from Thai keeper Anusit Termmee, who pushed Mazloum’s close-range shot over the crossbar, could only momentarily delay the opening goal of the tournament.

The resulting corner saw Mazloum latch on to the ball in a goal mouth scramble on the quarter-hour mark and make amends for his earlier failure to convert.
Iran who won their group at the 2012 tournament, continued to find space out wide as their wingers, particularly Saeid Aghaei playing down the left flank, regularly managed to get behind the Thai defence and pepper the box with passes but to no avail.

Thailand started to show their endeavour early in the second half, with an increase in tempo coinciding with the introduction of Tanasith.

The Young War Elephants began attacking the Iranian box and forced a number of saves from keeper Mahdi Amini before Tanasith found himself free at the top left hand corner of the penalty box and placed the ball over and across Amini, levelling the score in the 65th minute.

Turning to celebrate, the young midfielder, who had been on the field of play for less than quarter of an hour, injured himself and immediately had to be replaced by Samphaodi.

Iran attempted a comeback, several times hitting the woodwork as they tried to secure three points but when Chenrop found himself free with just eight minutes remaining, in a position on the right hand side of the box that almost mirrored Tanasith earlier, he unleashed a powerful strike to beat the Iranian keeper.

At the end of the game, Iranian coach Ali Doustimehr could only rue his side’s second-half performance and congratulate his opponents.

“They were very good, we lost the game because we took it too easy, our players were too relaxed, they saw the Thai players as physically smaller and believed they could simply walkover the opposition,” said Doustimehr, who will now look for a return to form in Saturday’s game against Yemen.

“But football is not just about the easy days, you must manage your team through the hard ones – nothing is finished yet we have two more games to come.”