Iran Lebanon

Tehran Times - Former Iran national football team midfielder Siruos Dinmohammadi says that Dragan Skocic's Iran deserve the 2022 World Cup spot after a mesmerizing afternoon at the Saida Stadium on Thursday, which ended with the Persian's victory.

Iran claimed a dramatic 2-1 win over Lebanon as added time goals from Sardar Azmoun and Ahmad Nourollahi maintained their unbeaten run and kept Skocic's side top of their World Cup qualifying group.

That means Iran (13 points) and South Korea (11 points) have drawn eight and six points clear of third-placed Lebanon in the six-team Group A, halfway through qualifying - the top two go straight to Qatar.

“Iran started well against Lebanon, and from the first minute, they dominated the game with an attacking tactic. We could have scored the first goal soon, but the players were in a hurry to score and were a little bit careless in front of the goal,” Dinmohammdi told Tehran Times.

“The Lebanese scored their goal with the help of wind. It was achieved entirely by chance, and of course, our players made mistakes in that situation.

“The goal helped the Lebanon team play with more confidence, and they believed to have earned an unlikely win over one of the best Asian football teams. They also had the chance to score their second goal by individual errors of our players,” the former Esteghlal said.

“Fortunately, we could find back of the net in the stoppage time and earn the three points. Iran deserved to win this game without any doubt. Moreover, our national team deserve to qualify for the 2022 Qatar World Cup because we are the best team in Group A, better than South Korea and all the other teams in the group,” he added.

Speaking about the Iran team's players, the former player of Mainz 05 said: “The players of the national team are great and there is not much difference between the quality of the players at the international level,” Dinmohammadi added.

“Sardar Azmoun acted very cleverly on the first goal, and on the second goal Vahid Amiri explosively ran into the opponent's box and broke their defensive wall.

“Skocic made calculated decisions in terms of the substituting. We kept pressure until the last seconds of the game and finally reached our desired result,” concluded Dinmohammadi.

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