Saudi Arabia and Iran’s Olympic teams will be playing their final games on Monday on the hope of NOT topping their group in Asian games 2018. Both teams with identical results will not be too keen to fight to death to win Monday’s matches.
Iran’s Olympics National Team will meet with Myanmar’s in the third and final match of the group in the Asian Games Men football competition. Zlatcko Krancjar’s boys have already won four points and are assured of qualifications with just 1 point. Iran is seeking to win that point against Myanmar, but to top the group , it needs a comprehensive win.
Nevertheless, the conditions at the knockout stage of the tournament are such that the Iranian national team does not have a good path to the finals, as the group’s top team should face the second ranked team of Group E South Korea. Even a win against the powerful Koreans will result in Iran Olympics team more that likely to face Uzbekistan. The Uzbeks are leading the group comfortably and in the group stage they have scored six goals against Qatar, one of the best national teams in this age level in Asia.
Even Hamid Estilli, the Team Manager , in a recent interview emphasized that it would be better if the Iranian national team did not win the group and qualify second instead.
Saudi Arabia and Iran are currently in the first and second places because of the same points and goal differences. The Saudi’s ranked based on disciplinary counts that FIFA has introduced in the last World Cup. Saudi yellow cards counts is lower than Iran.
Saudi Arabia will meet with North Korea with only one point against Myanmar, in their next match,
Because of the six grouping of the tournament, in addition to the leaders of the group, the top four third place teams in the groups, will also qualify to the next round.
However, if the Iran Olympic team qualifies as second in their group, they will face one of the three teams in Thailand, Qatar or Bangladesh. That is a far cry from facing South Korea who has Heung-Min Son in the squad and are strong contender for the gold medal.
Iran Squad
| Number | Pos. | Player | Date of birth (age) | Club |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GK | Mehdi Amini(Captain) | 16 May 1996 (22) |  Paykan |
| 2 | DF | Mohammad Aghajanpour | 20 Apr 1997 (21) | Padideh |
| 3 | DF | Mohammad Moslemipour | 25 May 1997 (21) | Tractor Sazi |
| 4 | DF | Mehdi Rahimi | 02 May 1999 (19) | Sepahan |
| 5 | DF | Alireza Arta | 04 Feb 1997 (21) | Mes Kerman |
| 6 | MF | Mohammad Soltani Mehr | 04 Feb 1999 (19) | Saipa |
| 7 | FW | Younes Delfi | 02 Oct 2000 (17) | Esteghlal Khuzestan |
| 8 | FW | Mohammad Amin Asadi | 24 Dec 1998 (19) | Persepolis |
| 9 | FW | Mohammad Mehdi Mehdikhani | 26 Jul 1997 (21) | Padideh |
| 10 | FW | Mohammad Reza Azadi | 07 Dec 1999 (18) | Tractor Sazi |
| 11 | FW | Mehdi Ghaedi | 05 Dec 1998 (19) | Esteghlal |
| 12 | GK | Shahab Adeli | 19 Jan 1997 (21) | Sepahan |
| 13 | DF | Abolfazl Razzaghpour | 17 Sep 1997 (20) | Paykan |
| 14 | FW | Reza Jabireh | 07 Jul 1997 (21) | Sanat Naft Abadan |
| 15 | FW | Ahmadreza Ahmadvand | 02 Jun 1999 (19) | Esteghlal |
| 16 | FW | Amir Roostaei | 5 Aug 1997 (21) | Paykan |
| 17 | FW | Sina Zamehran | 10 Mar 1997 (21) | Padideh |
| 18 | DF | Shahin Abbasian | 16 Jun 1997 (21) | Persepolis |
| 19 | MF | Mohammad Khodabandelou | 07 Sep 1999 (18) | Paykan |
| 20 | DF | Aref Aghasi | 02 Jan 1997 (21) | Foolad |