Asian Cup 2015 - Day 7 Review

Bahrain 1 – 2 UAE

Iran 1 – 0 Qatar

Day 7 dawned with Bahrain taking on UAE in Canberra and the Emiratis took the honours with a 2-1 win to book their place in the quarter finals.  UAE got off to the best of starts with a goal after just fourteen seconds.

Bahrain were caught dwelling on the ball on the right hand side of their midfield,  Omar Abdulrahman, the afro’d UAE playmaker, lifted a ball into the box for Ali Mabkhout to control and round the keeper in one touch and squeeze the ball in at the near post.

UAE nearly extended their lead in the sixteenth minute when a raking cross field ball was trapped by Abdulrahman on the right hand side of the box, he bought a little time before feeding the ball to Ahmed Khalil in the inside right channel who struck the post with Sayed Mohammed Jaffer beaten. Bahrain counted their blessings and grabbed an equaliser on the twenty five minute mark, an inswinging right sided corner from Fauozi Aaish was headed home at the far post by the towering Jaycee John.

Abdulrahman came within an ace of scoring a second for UAE on the hour mark when Bahrain were punished, perhaps harshly, for a back pass to Jaffer. The UAE number ten curled his left foot effort around the wall exquisitely from a yard inside the box but just cleared the bar. The threatened UAE goal did arrive in the seventy third minute when a well delivered free kick from the outside left slot around 30 yards out from Amer Abdulrahman flicked off the head of Bahraini skipper Mohamed Husain before flying high into the net.

Next up were Qatar and Iran in Sydney before a large following of Iranian fans, the majority of the crowd went home happy after Iran claimed a hard fought 1-0 victory and with it qualification for the quarter finals. Iran threatened first when a right sided corner from Andranik Teymourian floated to the penalty spot, Morteza Pouraliganji launched himself at it only to see the ball headed off of the line by Ahmed Al Sayed guarding the near post.

Just minutes later Iran threatened again when a long cross from Mehrdad Pooladi was headed on by Sardar Azmoun to find Ashkan Dejagah on the right edge of the box his half volley flashed across goal and narrowly wide of the far post.

Early in the second half Azmoun missed a golden opportunity when a Dejagah corner was totally misjudged by Qatari keeper Qasem Burhan only for the young forward to roll the chance wide of the near post. He made amends in the most spectacular fashion in the fifty second minute.

Teymourian won a fine tackle wide right he fed Dejagah who crossed to the edge of the box, Azmoun brought the ball down and turned in one fluid movement to lose Ali Al Mahdi before slotting past Qasem from twelve yards for what will be a contender for goal of the tournament. Iran created a host of near things between the goal and the final whistle but were unable to trouble the scorers further. On this form no one will look forward to facing Iran in the quarter finals.

Today’s Asian Cup Fixtures

Palestine v Jordan

Iraq v Japan