“In these kinds of competitions there is no tomorrow if we don’t win the present and first of all our Asian Cup final is against Yemen … I don’t care about anything else around us,” the official website of the AFC quoted him as saying.
“And when we finish the game against Yemen, then it’s time to think about Vietnam and after that Iraq. For the moment I want to develop this kind of instinct in my team, to keep all of our energy so that it explodes in the 90 minutes against Yemen. All the rest doesn’t count for us.”
“I was checking the results of the Iran national team in different competitions, at under 17s, under 20s, and never has Iran beaten Yemen in any official competition,” he said. “There’s a reason for that: Yemen might draw or lose, but Yemen are a tough team to beat.”
The event will kick off on January 5 with the match between the host, United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain. Team Melli will start their effort to end 43-year title drought on January 7 with the match against Yemen in Abu Dhabi. The team will then meet Vietnam 5 days later. Iran’s final match in the group stage will be against neighboring Iraq on December 16 which, according to an AFC poll, is the most eagerly awaited tie of the group stage. These two teams played at 2015 quarter-finals which ended with a scintillating 3-3 draw before the Iraqis eventually won 7-6 on penalties.
MAH/PR
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