Iran defeated Oman 2-0 to book a place in the quarter finals stage of the AFC Asian Cup 2019. Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored Iran’s first ON 32nd minute when he cleverly stole the ball from Oman’s central defender and smartly slotted it in on the advancing Oman keeper, while on the 41st minute, Captain Ashkan Dejagah scored from a spot kick awarded after a foul on Mehdi Taremi

The first half ended 2-0 for Team Melli.

The match started with a real scare when the Omani forward, closely marked by Majid Hosseini , received a long ball that bounced luckily for him, leaving Hosseini chasing behind. The Young Team Melli central defender clumsily tripped the advancing Omani forward in the box for the Mexican referee to whistle for a penalty.

Ahmed Mubarak Al-Mahaijri, Oman’s Captain took the spot kick but the excellent reflect by Alireza Beiranvand manged to save the ball which was aimed at the far right corner. This is the second Penalty save of Beiranavnd in as many game, the first being the penalty save against Cristiano Ronaldo in the FIFA World Cup 2018.

After that scare, Iran took over the play and dominated throughout the match. All figures and stats indicated Iranian superiority. Oman could not match Iran player’s skills and physical game and depended on long balls to break the solid defense marshaled exquisitely by Mortaza Pouraliganji who did not put a foot wrong. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of Majid Hosseini. Apart from the penalty he gave away because of a reckless challenge and being caught out, Late in the second half, another situation led to him committing a foul on the runaway Omani winger. He was a lucky boy not to get a second yellow and marching order.

Ashkan Dejagah was majestic in this match. He was the maestro of the team with his excellent vision and distribution of the ball.

This is the fourth clean sheet for Team Melli, although Beiranvand, except for that penalty, was not really tested in this game.

The forward line, were far from clinical today. Sardar Azmoun , could have scored a hat trick on his own while Taremi wasted two golden chances. There have been quite a few profligate performances by the strikers which could be a serious concern as Team Melli advances further.

Vahid Amiri picked up his second yellow card of the tournament , so he will miss the Quarter final’s match in four days time.

In an earlier match, China recovered from a goal down to beat Thailand 2-1. China will meet Team Melli in the next round in Abu Dhabi.

Iran
1	Alireza Beiranvand	GK
5	Milad Mohammadi	DF
8	Morteza Pouraliganji	DF
9	Omid Ebrahimi	MF
11	Vahid Amiri	FW
17	Mehdi Taremi	MF
18	Alireza Jahanbakhsh 32‘	MF
19	Seyed Majid Hosseini	DF
20	Sardar Azmoun	FW
21	Ashkan Dejagah 41‘(PK)	MF
23	Ramin Rezaeian	DF
Substitutes
4	Roozbeh Cheshmi 69‘ -> (Jahanbakhsh)
7	Masoud Shojaei 88‘ -> (Azmoun)
14	Saman Ghoddos 78‘ -> (Dejagah)
Manager
–	Carlos Queiroz