Confident Iran sets sights on North Korea win

FIFAWORLDCUP - Iran's 2-1 win over Japan in the Asian Group B World Cup qualifiers has given the Middle East side a boost in confidence and left their top Asian rivals wrangling over tactics.

Iran made sure their World Cup dream was kept on track Friday with a convincing home win, largely thanks to their trio of Bundesliga-based stars - Vahid Hashemian of Bayern Munich, Mehdi Mahdavikia of SV Hamburg and Kaiserslautern's Fereydoun Zandi.

Iran now share the lead in the group with Bahrain. Both teams are on four points, while Japan are in third with three and North Korea fourth on no points.

"We are going to North Korea to get the full three points," Iran's Croatian coach Branko Ivankovic said, underlining his confidence before their trip to Pyongang to face North Korea in a few days' time.

"We have overcome the champions of Asia. We have lifted the biggest obstacle in front of the World Cup," he said of the game against Japan, which drew a crowd of 100,000 to Tehran's Azadi stadium.

Ivankovic said the Pyongyang fixture is set to be missed by veteran captain Ali Daei due to injury - he was substituted in the first half of the Japan game - but the side appeared to have managed well without him and in the face of a fierce Japanese counterattack.

Both of Iran's goals came from Hashemian, with Ali Karimi, Mahdavikia and Zandi showing themselves to be strong playmakers.

Iran's press was predictably full of praise for the national side, thanking them for a "new year's gift" and a "memorable day" coinciding with the Persian new year's holiday season.

With only the top two teams in each group qualifying automatically for next year's tournament in Germany, Japan will now be under pressure to win their home game, against Bahrain, at the Saitama stadium near Tokyo on March 30.

And this will be no walkover. Bahrain held Iran to a scrappy goalless draw last month and beat North Korea.

Japanese coach Zico was under fire for gambling too much on out-of-form Fiorentina midfielder Hidetoshi Nakata, and for having opted to switch from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2 to accommodate him.

"If we had played with the old style we would have played better," Asian Cup star Shunsuke Nakamura, who played alongside Nakata, told reporters after the match.