AFC - Iran eased to their third straight win in Group C of the AFC U-22 Championship 2013 qualifiers as Ali Reza Mansourian’s men defeated the Maldives 7-0 to move three points clear of Qatar and Kuwait.

Having already defeated the Arab duo in their opening two fixtures, Iran had already emerged as the group favourites and they highlighted that status as they raced to a 3-0 lead over the Maldives with just 21 minutes at the Hang Jebat Stadium gone.

Payam Sadeghian opened the scoring with a seventh-minute penalty before further goals from Kaveh Rezaei (18th) and Morteza Tabrizi (21st) gave Iran a comfortable cushion going into the interval.

Milad Gharibi made it 4-0 ten minutes after the restart with the first of his two goals, scoring his second and Iran’s sixth in the 82nd minute, 13 minutes after Tabrizi had bagged his brace.

Bahram Dabbagh netted number seven one minute into stoppage-time to seal the emphatic win that ended the Maldives’ chances of qualification to the finals.

Qatar and Kuwait both had to work much harder for their three points on Thursday, with the Gulf sides recording 1-0 wins over Bahrain and Tajikistan respectively.

Muayed scored the winner for Qatar with eight minutes of the later match at the Hang Jebat Stadium remaining while over at the Hang Tuah Stadium Kuwait needed a 75th minute own goal from defender Akhtam Nazarov for their victory.