Iran to meet China in Asian Games football quarters Dec 9

IRNA - The defending champion Iran is scheduled to play China in the quarterfinals of the football event of the 15th Asian Games here Saturday.

In addition to Iran and China, Uzbekistan, Iraq, South Korea, North Korea, Thailand, and host country Qatar advanced to the last eight.

According to the schedule, Iran-China match will kick off at 16:00 hours local time (1200 GMT).

Qatar will entertain Thailand, Uzbekistan is to take on Iraq, and the two Koreas will meet Saturday.

Iran had an under-par performance in the preliminaries although it qualified for the quarterfinals with perfect nine points out of three games.

The Iranian Under-23 squad beat lowly Maldives 3-1 in the opening clash, fought back to defeat Hong Kong 2-1, and disposed of struggling India 2-0.