Competing in Men's Preliminaries Pool B, Iran national Cerebral Palsy (CP) football squad prevailed over Argentinian rivals at Deodoro Stadium.
The Persian side comprises Babak Safari, Hashem Rastegari, Lotfollah Jangjou, Sadegh Hassani, Jasem Bakhshi, Mohammad Kharat as well as Moslem Akbari where are led by Aminollha Amani and Ahmad Janali as head couch and coach, respectively.
Mohammad Kharat found the net for Iran 32 minutes into the match while Jasem Bakhtiari and Sadegh Hassani score second and third goals for Iran in the 43rd and 51st minutes to confirm the sweet victory. Meanwhile, Mariano Morana earned Argentina’s first goal early into the second half.
Iranian men’s national 7-a-side football team is scheduled to take on American rivals on Monday.
In the other Pool P match, three-time Paralympic title-winner Netherlands drew against the US. Also in Pool A Preliminaries competitions, Brazil overcame Britain 2-1 and Ukraine trounced Ireland 6-0.
Technique, tough tackling and lots of goals, football 7-a-side has been thrilling Paralympic Games fans since 1984. Played by athletes with cerebral palsy, in Rio there will be eight men’s teams battling for the title.
The Mina delegation of Iranian Paralympians at the Rio Paralympics is comprised of 111 sportspeople who are competing at athletics, powerlifting, Men and Women’s sitting volleyball, archery, shooting, judo, football, 5-a-side football, wheelchair basketball, swimming, sailing, cycling as well as 7-a-sife football.
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