Doustimehr: Previous results mean nothing

AFC - Coach Ali Doustimehr has warned Iran against complacency ahead of Wednesday’s AFC U-16 Championship semi-final showdown against United Arab Emirates.

Iran recorded three wins over UAE in friendly meetings before the tournament with 4-0 and 6-0 wins on home soil in Tehran just a week before the team flew to the Uzbekistan capital earlier this month as well as a 1-0 away win.

But Doustimehr, who saw Kaveh Rezaei’s double defeat Syria in Sunday’s quarter-final, is well aware the Wednesday’s meeting at MHSK Stadium will be far from easy with a place in Saturday’s final at stake.

“We played three friendlies against the UAE, one in UAE and two in Iran, and we beat them in all three,” said Doustimehr.

“But this makes our task very hard as they know our positive and negative points.

“We have told the players to make themselves ready as this will be the hardest match of the tournament.”

Doustimehr knows previous results count for nothing with UAE recording a surprise 3-2 win over highly fancied Australia in Sunday’s quarter-finals, just hours after being informed they would be playing after Yemen were denied a place in the last eight for fielding an over-aged player in the group stage.

“Australia are a strong team and UAE played very well to beat them,” he added. “We have to respect UAE and we have to be ready to play them.”

Iran will be without Iman Shirazi for Wednesday’s semi-final after the defender was sent off against Syria after collecting a second yellow card in the last minute.

“Football is a team game and not an individual one,” said Doustimehr. “We have 23 players and we have good substitutes who can replace Iman, also we have no injuries.”

After winning their qualifying group with a 100% record after not conceding a goal and scoring 17 in four games, Iran also won all three group stage games in Tashkent against Bahrain, Uzbekistan and Singapore before seeing off Syria courtesy of Rezaei’s late brace.

“It will be a tough game,” said Iran defender Ali Goudarzi. “UAE will stand in front of us, but we will hope to beat them and reach the final.”