Iran seek win to stay in Athens 2004 hunt

AFC - Iran's Olympic team go into Friday's clash against Malaysia in the Asian Football Qualifiers 2004 knowing that nothing less than victory will do if they want to keep alive their dream of qualifying for the Athens 2004 Olympics.

The Olympic hopes of the Iranian side hang in the balance after the Asian Games 2002 gold medallists stumbled to two defeats in four Group A qualifying matches, allowing Korea Republic to forge six points clear of their rivals with a perfect record of four wins in as many matches. 

As a result, Iran's fate in the Olympic qualifiers is no longer in their own hands. To reach Athens, they must beat Malaysia and hope that China can defeat the unbeaten Koreans in Changsha on Saturday, setting up a showdown between the top two in Seoul on May 12.

While the Iranians will no doubt be concerned about the result in Changsha, they must first do their part by beating Malaysia at the Azadi Stadium. That may not seem too tall a task on paper given Iran's 4-1 trouncing of the South East Asian side in March despite a less than convincing performance in Kuala Lumpur, but Iran coach Hussein Faraki knows that his side cannot take anything for granted, even against Group A's weakest team.

"The Malaysians play a physical game and have a decent team," said Faraki, as reported by www.persianleague.com. "The fact that they tied the Chinese (1-1) in Beijing shows that we cannot take them lightly, but we have no fear from them and we will go out there to achieve the victory we need."

Due to the league commitments of some of his players, Faraki has only had three days of training sessions with his squad ahead of the Malaysia match, but the Iranians reportedly have no injury concerns and are expected to field a full-strength side

Malaysia will only be playing for pride in Tehran after managing just one point in four games. While coach Allan Harris is sweating on the fitness of defenders Norhafiz Zamani Misbah and Aziz Ismail and midfielder K. Rajan, he has not ruled out the prospect of Malaysia getting a result against Iran. 

"Playing away always makes things harder. But we managed to prove a point before," said Harris to The Star. "After the first loss to Iran, everyone thought we were going to be easily beaten by China. But we managed a 1-1 draw."

Malaysian skipper Akmal Rizal Rakhli echoes his coach's confidence. "We will go out there and give our best. But there is certainly less pressure on us to perform compared to all our previous matches. 

"It's not going to be easy playing the Iranians. I hope we will get a favourable result," he added.