AFC - Abolfazl Razzaghpour’s first-half free kick earned Islamic Republic of Iran a 1-0 win over Yemen on Thursday evening as Amir Peiravnai’s side booked their place in the knockout phase of the AFC U-19 Championship Bahrain 2016.
Iran secured their first win of the competition after draws with Qatar and Japan to join the Japanese in the quarter-finals with a second place finish in Group C, setting up a meeting with the winners of Group D in the next round.
Razzaghpour’s goal came in the 45th minute and was enough for a dominant Iranian team to take all three points despite a lack of clear cut chances throughout the 90 minutes for either side.
Iran spent most of the opening 35 minutes camped out in the Yemen half but, although they dominated possession, Amir Peiravani’s side was able to create little due to the organisation and discipline on display by the Yemeni defence.
Steadily, though, the Iranians moved closer to the Yemeni goal. Mehdi Mehdikhani fired off a long range attempt that curled well wide in the 39th minute while two minutes later he headed just wide from only six yards out.
However, it always seemed as if it would take something special to break the deadlock and, on the stroke of halftime, a moment of class from Razzaghpour put the Iranians in front when the left back curled his free kick into the top corner of Salem Al Harsh’s goal, giving the keeper little hope.
The second half followed a similar pattern, even if Yemen’s Zakarya Tawaf had a sight of goal two minutes after the resumption, only for his low shot to be easily gathered by Shahab Adeli.
Reza Jafari hit the woodwork with his close range header after fine work down the right by Majtaba Najarian allowed the winger to clip the ball into the danger area while just minutes later Omid Norafkan thumped his drive from 35 yards over the bar.
Reza Shekari went close with a fine individual effort in the 73rd minute when he turned to shoot from outside the corner of the penalty area, only for the ball to fly narrowly over Al Harsh’s goal.
And Razzaghpour’s long range attempt 12 minutes from time also cleared the goal with distance to spare, but it mattered little as the Iranians picked up all three points to progress to the next round.
IR Iran coach Amir Peiravani
"I’d like to thank my players because they played very disciplined and were well organised. These players are all young, 18 and 17, and they had a lot of stress because they were thinking that if we didn’t win they would have to go home, so they were nervous.
"One or two days ago the Yemen coach said they could win against us because he wanted to put pressure on our players, but we were unlucky in this game. We could have scored three or four goals. We’ve already forgotten this game, because from now the first whistle for the next game has been blown and we have to go into that game with a good mentality. I must talk to my players because the next match is very important for us."
Yemen coach Mohammad Al Nufiay
"We have to say congratulations to Iran and Japan. Today this was our last game and we tried to do our best. We were very close to getting the three points, but the players were hurrying and not concentrating. They were tired after three games because the preparation for the team wasn’t enough for us. The Iranian team focused on free kicks and this is the only weapon they used against us, even the mistakes we made made their job very easy to get the three points."