Iran Hammers Myanmar 14-0 in AFC Futsal Championships

Defending champion Iran underlined its title credentials with a comprehensive 14-0 victory over Myanmar in their Group C opener at the 2018 AFC Futsal Championships on Friday in Taipei, Taiwan.

Iran wasted little time asserting its authority with two goals inside the first minute to immediately take control of the match.

According to The-afc.com, the first came within seconds of kick off when Iran forced a turnover and AFC Futsal Player of the Year Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh slid the ball across for a simple tap in for Mahdi Javid.

No less than 30 seconds later and the team had its second of the evening courtesy of Hassanzadeh, who added Iran’s third and his second a further three minutes later.

Iran then proceeded to go on a scoring spree, adding five goals in the space of three minutes, which included a run of three goals in a minute, to more than put the match beyond doubt half way through the first half.

Myanmar’s defense solidified in the final 10 minutes of the first half, with Yan Paing Hein making some wonderful saves, to restrict Iran to just one further goal for the half, which saw them head in at half time with a commanding 9-0 lead.

In the opening 10 minutes of the second half Myanmar’s defense held firm again, with Iran scoring only once in the 22nd minute when Javid scored his third for the evening.

But a flurry of late goals – a further four in the final 10 minutes – added some extra icing onthe cake for Iran.

In the end, Hassanzadeh and Javid ended with four goals apiece, while Hossein Tayebi tallied a hat-trick highlighting their dominance across the evening.

After the game, Myanmar head coach Htay Myint said, “Iran is a world class team, so we told our players to take this match as an experience. We will try to fix our defensive tactics, and that’s what we will improve on for our next match. We already have a plan for Iraq, and that’s a final game for us if we want to go to the next round”.

On his side’s decisive victory, Mohammmad Nazem Alsharie, Iran head coach said, “this was a game that we expected. Myanmar is a good team which is fast. The only problem it had was experience.”

Iran will next play China on Sunday, while Myanmar will play Iraq, which enjoyed a confidence-boosting win over China in the earlier Group C match on Friday.