Iraq in WAFF Final as Iran's penalty woes continue

AFC -Iraq celebrated a place against Jordan in Saturday's WAFF Championship final after outlasting Iran 6-5 on penalties as the eagerly awaited semi-final clash ended 0-0 after extra-time.

Young goalkeeper Noar Sabri Abbas (pictured) was one of coach Adnan Hamd's heroes as he saved two Iran penalties before defender Bassim Moussa slotted home the winning kick to spark wild celebrations among the vociferous Iraqi fans in the Abbassayyine Stadium in Damascus, Syria.

After both sides struck four successful penalties each, Abbas saved well from Alireza Vahedinikbakht, but Ebrahim Mirzapour also saved from substitute Ahmed Assad to force sudden-death.

Iran's Mohsen Bayati Niya scored next, before the ever-impressive Nashat Akram Ali showed nerves of steel by sidefooting his shot into the top-right corner to make it 5-5. Abbas then saved from Hamid Azizzadeh and Moussa's winner into the bottom-right corner rounded off a nerve-racking finale.

Iran coach Branko Ivankovic was a deflated man as Iran's misery from the penalty spot continued following Ali Karimi's regulation-time miss against Jordan and failures by Karimi and Sohrab Bakhtiarizadeh against Lebanon.

"Penalties come down to a lot of luck and at the end of the day there can only be one winner. We had no luck in the previous two games with penalties and it was the same today," said Ivankovic, whose squad is preparing for the Asian agems in Busan for Under 23s.

"However, it was an exciting game and a hard game. We played well and I believe this team have a good future. We were stronger than Iraq in the firt half and they came into it more in the second half."

The game itself provided few goalmouth opportunities. Iran had more of the possession in the first half, and had a great chance when Vahedinikbakht was put through on the left of the area in the 37th minute, but Abbas saved well from the left-footed forward.

Iran midfielder Eman Mobeli came even closer into first-half injury time when, after some sublime skill to evade his marker, the youngster blasted a 25-yard shot onto the crossbar.

Iraq came into the game more in the second half, with Ahmed Abed Al Jabber enjoying several good efforts after coming on for Ali Wihayib after an hour of play. The diminutive attacker had two good long-range attempts in the 81st minute and seven minutes into extra-time.

His best chance came two minutes into the second period when he blasted over from 12 yards after pouncing on a loose ball in the area, while three minutes later striker Razaq Farhan also shot over after latching onto a long ball in the area.

Iraq assistant coach Madd Ibrahim admitted his team were happy to come away with a win aganst an Iran side that had improved with each game in the tournament.

"We didn't expect Iran to play so well after watching them in the first two games. I think they will be a good team in the future. However, now we must prepare for our match aganst Jordan, who are also a very good team."