PTV - Iran's Olympic football team has edged past Iraq in the second round of the Asian qualifiers for the 2012 Summer Olympics Football tournament in London.
The Iranian under-23 football team downed Iraqis 1-0 in a gripping match at Arbil's Franso Hariri stadium in Iraq on Sunday to secure the important away victory.
Mohsen Mosalman opened the net for the Iranian squad through a close-range shot from the edge of the box after the half jour mark.
The Malavan playmaker found himself unmarked inside the penalty aria after a neat one-two with Hamidreza Aliasgari, and tapped the ball in.
Alireza Mansourian's team possessed the ball and the field for most of the match, but they missed many clear-cut scoring chances, and finished the match with one-goal lead.
Sunday was an action packed day for the Asian qualifiers, when South Korea scored three second-half goals to defeat Jordan 3-1 in Seoul, Japan overcame Kuwait with the same result, Oman downed China 1-nil in Shanghai, Australia blanked Yemen with three goals, and United Arab Emirates beat North Korea 1-nil.
The second leg of the match against the Iraqi side is scheduled to be held on Thursday at Tehran's Azadi Stadium.
Iran edged past Kyrgyzstan 1-0 in the first leg of the preliminary round of the Asian qualifiers, and the two sides played to a goalless draw in the second leg. Iran advanced to the second round with an aggregate of 1-0.
Asia has three spots for automatic qualifiers and a spot for inter-continental play-off against the fourth representative of the Pre-Olympic Tournament in African zone.
The 12 winners from the second round will be drawn into three four-team groups, with the winner of each group advancing to the London Olympics, and the three runner-up teams advancing to the play-off round. The winner of the play-off round will advance to play the fourth-ranked African team in a play-off for a spot at the Olympic Games.