Dailymail - Great Britain's blind football team missed out on the chance to fight for a medal as they finished bottom of their group with a 1-0 defeat by Iran.

The hosts ended the round-robin stage without a win after missing a penalty and three 'double penalties' — which are taken from eight metres as opposed to six — in a match dominated by the stunning performance of Iran goalkeeper Meysam Shojaeiyan.

Captain Dave Clarke - a man who has over 100 international goals as well as a television advert with David Beckham on his resume - struggled to find the words to sum up his frustration after a must-win match ended in defeat.

'I'm devastated, absolutely devastated,' Clarke said. 'We were very tentative in the first half. The second half we gave it a really good go but nothing would go in. Everything was just a little tap [from Iran] or a clever foul or something else getting in the way of clear run at goal.'

Early fouls put Britain in trouble as Iran were handed penalty chances, and Ahmadreza Shah Hosseini Ardekani took one such opportunity late in the first half to give his side the advantage.

Britain tried all they could to come back, with Clarke having one penalty saved while another from Daniel English struck the crossbar.

The goalkeepers are the only fully-sighted players involved, with all others having B1 visual impairment and wearing blindfolds. Iran's proved to be their match-winner in the second half with a series of great saves.

'I thought at least one of my shots was going in,' Clarke said. 'I think he tapped it wide from a corner, and then I don't know where the penalty went. But we had opportunities today and didn't take them. That's what hurts the most.'

There was some good fortune involved as Shojaeiyan kept out a shot from Clarke after a fine run from the left as it struck his instep and spooned over the bar for a corner, but there was nothing lucky about the way he kept out a penalty from English low down to his right.

He then got fingertips to another effort from Clarke as Iran took the win, relegating Britain to last place in the group and Thursday's classification games.

'We're all on the floor in there,' added Clarke. 'I'm not ashamed to say there's tears galore, but we've just got to get on with it.'

English lamented Shojaeiyan's contribution but said Britain should have got on the front foot earlier.

'I can't put into words how it feels,' said the 21-year-old from Sunderland. 'The keeper made some fantastic saves but keepers at this level should be making those saves so we didn't expect for him not to.

'It wasn't just the penalties. We should have gone out there and been pressing them from the beginning.'


Clarke, 41, has promised this will be his third and final Paralympics, having first played goalball back in 1996 before taking part in football's debut appearance in Beijing.

But he will leave the stage after the classification round hoping to have helped Paralympic sport progress.

'I've always said we need to make a fact-based argument about the place of disabled and minority sports within our culture,' he said. 'It's not all about male-dominated professional games, it's about other things as well.

'I think the Paralympics have shown in every way, shape and form how brilliant it is to watch other kinds of sports and I think we've made a good argument through our performances for people to do that.'

Britain’s five-a-side team will now face China in the fifth-to-eighth-place play-off on Thursday  morning.

Sir Trevor Brooking, director of football development at the Football Association, said: ‘I heard British captain Dave Clarke say during the timeout, “We don’t want to go out like this”.

‘I think they know they’ve not played well and they’re better than we’ve seen. It’s a shame but it’s a great occasion and all the games have been tight.’