CAFA Nations Cup:
Qalenoei rues ‘lack of prep’ as Iran hits three past India
Iran head coach Amir Qalenoei said he would take responsibility for his side’s lack of match sharpness at the ongoing CAFA Nations Cup despite a 3-0 victory over India in its second Group B outing on Monday.
The Asian powerhouse dominated from the off against the minnow opposition at the Hisor Central Stadium but still had to wait until the hour mark to break the deadlock through Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh, who squeezed the ball past Indian goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.
Persepolis striker Ali Alipour netted his first international goal in the 89th minute, pouncing home on the rebound after Mahdi Taremi’s effort came off the post.
Taremi found himself on the scoresheet deep into stoppage time, when he latched onto a precise pass from Alireza Jahanbakhsh before dispatching a composed finish to seal the win.
The victory left Iran, which had beaten Afghanistan 3-1 on the opening day, on top of the group table, with India and cohost Tajikistan trailing Qalenoei’s side by three points.
“Before I talk about the match, I need to address my own mistake and admit that we should have come into this tournament with a better preparation,” Qalenoei said after the game.
“Some of our players have played three matches in the past 10 days, while we made 18 changes to the national team roster for this competition, which is why we should have had four or five training sessions in Tehran before heading to the tournament. As I said, this is my failure as the head coach.
On Monday’s performance and result, Qalenoei said: “India sat deep with nine or 10 players in its own half, looking to hit us on the counter-attack. However, our team also took on a very good shape in our defensive third. Unlike the previous match, we reduced the space between our lines, and didn’t give them any opportunities.
“In the second half, we understood India’s approach a bit better. The substitutions made an impact, and we found the goals,” added the Iranian.
“It’s always more difficult to compete against teams with this kind of setup and high motivation because they have incredible work rate and multiple defensive layers; they simply don’t want to concede. I just want to give credit to my players for delivering a much-improved performance compared to the previous game despite being very tired.”
Next for Iran is a final group game on Thursday against Tajikistan, which beat Afghanistan 2-0 later on Monday.
The group winner will progress to the final showpiece at Tashkent’s Olympic City Stadium on Monday.