Iran Routs China 11-1 to Reach Quarterfinals

Reigning champion Iran advanced to the quarterfinals of the AFC Futsal Championship after defeating China 11-1 in a Group C tie on Sunday in Taipei.

China held firm for the first three minutes but a defensive error proved costly as Iran took the lead courtesy of Hossein Tayyebi’s strike.

According to the AFC website, Iran continued to control the match before firing two more goals seven minutes later through Farhad Tavakkoli and Mahdi Javid.

Javid added his second four minutes later before Mohammad Shajari and Tayyebi’s strike made it 6-0.

China, however, did not give up as Xu Yang pulled one back when he found an opening following an assist by Shen Siming for a 6-1 score at halftime.

Iran wasted no time after the break and picked up the pace, firing five more goals with Ali Asghar Hassanzadeh scoring two under three minutes.

Ahmad Esmaeilpour hit Iran’s ninth while Tavakkoli’s second three minutes later gave the team a commanding 10-1 lead before Tayyebi put the icing on the cake, completing his hat-trick with three minutes left to play.

After the game, Sergio Gargelli, China’s head coach, said, “to compete against Iran I told my team that we need to press the Iranian players and wait for them to make mistakes and try our best, because this is a better team compared to us. We have to approach strong teams like Iran aggressively and not just try to play defensively. The match today was a good learning experience for us.”

Iran head coach Mohammmad Nazem Alsharie also talked about his side’s second decisive victory, after thrashing Myanmar 14-0 in their first game, and said, “in the first half, we were under pressure but after a few moments we gained control of the game. We try to show our best performance in each game”.

Iran will play Iraq in their final group tie while China will play for pride against Myanmar on Tuesday.

“We have had a few friendlies with Iraq so we know them very well. Iraq is completely different to the East, and we hope to see a beautiful game,” Nazem Alsharie added.