Iran wins LG Cup withouth shining

Iran wins in a scoreless draw that led to extra overtime and then penalty kicks. The final score on penalty kicks was 9-8. Iran played a decent game, in which a lot of young stars took the field. Players such as Saeid Lotfi and Hossein Kaabi played well despite the fact that they have every little experience on the national level.

Iran controlled a majority of the first half of play, a couple of good chances were not used wisely by Iranian attackers, Nikbakht-Vahedi and Ali Karimi. In the second half, Algeria had some dangerous attacks on goal, one in which they strike the post. It must be noted, Algerians played a very physical game, and had many unnecessary tackles on our players. Hossein Kaabi was injured and Vahedi-Nikbakht was tackled many times.

Navazi and Karimi had one great opportunity each, but both were saved by the Algerian goalkeeper, that played very well for his country.

Below is a summary of the penalty kicks taken by iranian players:

1. Peyrovani Misses

2. Bakhtiarizadeh Scores

3. Golmohammadi Scores

4. Khatibi Scores

5. Karimi Scores

6. Nekunam Scores

7. Kazemian Scores

8. Jamshidi Scores

9. Minavand Scores

10. Lotfi Scores

Iran's captain in this match was Afshin Peyrovani, since Ali Daei had received a red card in the previous match. The line-up for Iran was as follows:

Mirzapour, Bakhtiarzadeh, Peyrovani, Lotfi, Golmohamadi, Kavianpour, Navazi, KHaziravi, Nikbakht-Vahedi, Kaabi, Karimi

subs used by Iran: Javad Kazemian, Rasool Khatibi, Mehrdad Minavand, Javad Nekounam, Pezhman Jamshidi.

 

Kambiz M.

Varzeshkar News (www.varzeshkar.com)