Iran Press/ Asia: A 2-0 win at the Pathum Thani Stadium in their final Group B match saw Iran seal qualification for the quarterfinals of the AFC U17 Asian Cup Thailand 2023 on Thursday, bumping the already-through Koreans down to the second place.
While it was the Koreans who saw most of the ball early on, their opponents were simply biding their time to strike. The first warning sign came when Yaghoob Barajeh tested Hong Seong-min with a tame effort before Amir-Mohammad Razaghinia blasted his shot wide from 25 yards.
Hong was then at full stretch to palm away Esmaeil Gholizadeh’s rasping 20-yard drive, as Korea Republic struggled to break down an organized Iran side at the opposite end. Perhaps the seven changes to the starting line-up affected the East Asians’ chemistry, as they were then torn apart twice in two minutes.
Kasra Taheri, whose two goals to date in the tournament were both set up by Nima Andarz, returned the favor in the 18th minute. His flick-on fell into the path of the rampaging right-back, whose low drive squirmed underneath Hong to break the deadlock.
Barely 60 seconds later, it was 2-0. A brilliant backheel from Gholizadeh nutmegged an opponent and found Mahan Sadeghi, who took a touch before leathering the ball across Hong and into the top right corner. The winger became the sixth Iranian to find the back of the net in this tournament - no other team has had more different scorers.
Korea’s only two efforts on target of the half came via long-range efforts from full-backs Lee Su-ro and Seo Jeong-hyeok, which summed up their lack of potency.
They were fortunate not to fall further behind less than a minute into the second half when Taheri took down a long ball and surged into the area, only for captain Kang Min-woo to pull off a last-ditch tackle.
Six minutes later, Gholizadeh had his head in his hands after side footing the ball wide from Taheri’s cut-back.
Yoon Do-young and Kim Myeong-jun - the tournament’s joint-top scorers with three goals - were brought on as Korea sought a way back into the game, but the Iranian goal remained untroubled.
Byun Sung-hwan made all his five changes by the 67th minute and one of them, Park Seung-soo, headed over a decent opportunity shortly after coming on.
There was to be no way through with Yun having a late chance saved as Iran held on to book a quarter-final clash with Yemen on Sunday, while Korea will face Thailand.
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