Iran Stuns Germany, Reaches Round 16

Iran booked a ticket for the quarter-finals at the FIFA U-17 World Cup, underway in Goa, India, with a convincing 4-0 victory over Germany in the second match in Group A, on Tuesday.

Despite coming up against one of Europe’s top sides, the Iranian youth were not overawed by the occasion and dominated the German side that looked out of sorts.

Younes Delfi opened the scoring for Iran six minutes after the whistle. He doubled after converting a free-kick for a deserved two-goal lead three minutes to the half-time.

According to the FIFA website, if it was not for Germany goalkeeper Luca Plogmann making several important saves, Iran would have scored more goals before half-time, as Delfi and Allayahr Sayyad caused the European side numerous problems.

Any hopes that Germany had of a comeback ended four minutes after the break, as Sayyad’s diving header to Delfi’s excellent cross put the Asian team three goals to the good.

Substitute Vahid Namdari then finished off a fine counter-attacking move with a quarter of an hour remaining to complete an emphatic result for Iran.

Iran’s young players delivered a superb performance that will be remembered for long. They thoroughly outclassed Germany and by doing so, sent a message to other teams in the competition.

“We respected the German team and we did not underestimate them. Germany is always a tough opponent for any team in the world but we showed a brilliant team performance; we defended excellently and were great in attack,” Iran’s head coach Abbas Chamanian said.

Iran, that beat Guinea in the opening match, now sits on top of the group with six points and thus qualified for the next round. Group A’s earlier game saw Costa Rica and Guinea play out a 2-2 draw.

Germany, that won over Costa Rica 2-1 in the first game, now needs to win against Guinea in the final group match to qualify for the knock-out round.

In Group D, Brazil defeated North Korea 2-0 and advanced to the round of 16. Spain also gained a 4-0 victory against Niger.

Iran will play its last match against Costa Rica in Goa on October 13 while Germany travel to Kochi to play against Guinea.