Team Melli dispensed of India with ease winning 3-0 away in Bengaluru with goals from Sardar Azmoun , Andranik Teymourian and Mehdi Taremi. The first half of the FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifying rounds ended 1-0 for Iran.
Iran heads Group D of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers table with 7 points ahead of Oman and Guam both on 7 points. The two teams played a goalless draw earlier on the day.
The match was expected to be a hard nut to crack for the Indian team since Iran are ranked 115 places above them in the latest FIFA World Rankings.
Queiroz once again stuck to the young guns who responded magnificently with both Azmoun and Taremi scoring again after the two players braces against Guam.
Iran, went into the match brimming with confidence after they dismantled Guam with a comprehensive 6-0 win, over 2000 Team Melli fans were in Bangalore to cheer for Iran. India , on the other hand were short of confidence and points in the table after two consecutive defeats and zero points.
Team Melli attacked from the beginning of the match while India was content to defend and close the area.
While Indian defenders did well in the first half of the match, a bit of complacency in the initial phase of the second half saw them conceding two goals in the first five minutes. This made the task of the Indian team that much difficult.
India started off well in the game. One would believe that the hosts did not give up but they went down fighting against the Asian powerhouse.
In the first half of the match, Indian players looked composed and oragnised, but they were beaten by pace and class of the Iranian footballers.
India skipper Sunil Chhetri, Robin Singh and Jeje Lalpekhlua shared a good spell of passing in the first quarter of the match but they could not create any chances whatsoever. Instead the Iranian were on the attack every other moment and posed a threat for India goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
The first goal came in the 27th minute when Iran got a free-kick from a dangerous position. Sardar Azmoun found the back of the net. After this goal, Robin Singh and Sunil Chhetri did create a number of chances but all of them went begging. At half time, the score was 1-0.
Right after the start of the second half, Iranian skipper Andranik Teymourian made it 2-0. Three minutes later Mehdi Taremi made it 3-0 and it looked all over for India.
There was no coming back from there. But the Indian players tried hard to keep the Iranian defence on the edge till the end of the game. Sandesh Jhinghan was impressive as well but if you can’t convert the chances into goals then there is no point. India came really close to scoring when Chhetri’s shot went inches over the Iranian bar in the 60th minute and later Jeje failed to convert a flick from Chhetri.
Many chances were wasted by Iran especially the two in the dying minutes of the match both wasted by Dejagah.
Iran next opponent will be Oman and that would be the sternest test for Team Melli in the group.