An empathic 6-0 win against hapless Afghanistan ensured Iran consolidates its spot at the top of the table ahead of Saudi Arabia and also ensures a thrilling finale for the AFC U23 Championship qualifiers when the two top teams meet on Tuesday.
The most impressive scene of the match was the 80,000 fans in the Azadi stadium with the absolute majority supporting the away team Afghanistan. However , the thousands of the excited Afghan fans had little to rejoice from the match as their team fell victim of the big brother with a superb control and authority in the game.
Omid team seems to improve with each game as witnessed in the performance against Afghanistan. Iran Omid Team had full and total control of the match, denying the neighbors any chance for shooting. The scoring was opened 11 minutes into the game by none other than Sardar Azmoun when he took full advantage of a defender error who lost the ball just in front of Azmoun lurking behind him. The Rostov player run with the ball and finished immaculately to put Iran 1-0 ahead.
Mordmand then scored Iran’s second in the 23rd minute when he climber to head the ball inside the net. 2-0
on the 27th minute Kamandani finished quite neatly from a diagonal ball by Abdollahzadeh on the right.
10 minutes later , he Captain on the day , Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored his first goal of the tournament with an excellent free kick leaving Afghan keeper no hope,
The first half finished 4-0 for Iran’s U23 team
The second half continued on the same rhythm . on the hour, Iran’s defender Rozbeh Cheshmi scored Iran’s fifth assisted by a perfectly floated free kick by Alireza Jahabakhsh. Finally , Sardar Azmoun sealed the match with his second goal of the game and Iran’s sixth when he neatly finished from a finely measured pass on the left flank from Milad Mohammadi.
Iran Omid team keeps the pressure on the Saudi’s. The performance would encourage mote fans to show their support. The two stars of the team Azmoun and Jahanbakhsh maintained their high standard in the game and lead by example. The only reservation was the tendency by Sardar Azmoun to go it alone when he is not in the best situation to score. Traces of selfishness were evident in his game and could become an issue if not guided soon. Jahanbakhsh on the other hand was spotless and delivered a sterling performance despite a niggling minor injury. He was substituted on the hour to conserve his energy and give him time to recover.
Iran has a perfect record from 3 games with 14 goals scored and none conceded.