Team Melli U16 are strong candidate for qualifying to the next round as Qatar and Syria ended their match 1-1. Qatar missed a golden opportunity to take all three points after the Australian referee awarded Qatar a penalty in the dying minutes of the match. Syrian Goalkeeper saved the penalty kick, awarding his team its 2nd point in as many games of the tournament after their draw with Saudi Arabia.

Iran will be facing the Saudi Team breaming with confidence and hope to grab at least a point , although that might not be enough depending on the last  game against Syria.

In the first match against Qatar, Iranian boys showed quite a good level of individual skills and a much better physical strength and body built than the smaller sized opponents of Qatar. However , the match also highlighted a few points of weakness that mars Iranian football in general. 

Despite their young age and limited expectations, the team was geared towards dependence on individual skills rather than teamwork. Their insistence to dribble past their opponents rather than finding a better positioned teammate was quite obvious in the game vs Qatar. It will be a safe bet to assume that similar style of play, which is antiquated, will be employed throughout this tournament. On contrast, the effect of the Qatar Aspire Academy was clearly showing in the Qatar team. Nice passing and teamwork was a delight to watch and in contrast to the individual skills of Iranians.

  Whether that is a reason of ill preparation or because of feeble standard of coaching at such age group is open to debate.  

The other shortcoming is the finishing. Again at such age level , one must not expect anything beyond the age of these players, but even considering that, the young Iranians could have scored at least 3 more goals with better finishing.

Saudi Arabia needs all the 3 points to stand a chance of qualification.