Iranian fans need no reminder of how long it has been since the country last claimed the AFC Asian Cup; since 1976 numerous teams have tried \u2013 and failed \u2013 to take the title to Tehran for a fourth time.<\/p>\n
Team Melli have turned up in Qatar for the current edition of the continental championship with designs on claiming the trophy, another talented team ready to turn 48 years of heartache into euphoria and delight.<\/p>\n
The man spearheading the latest challenge is Mehdi Taremi, a player who needs little introduction due to his remarkable exploits for both club and country. A prolific scorer for Porto and Iran, Taremi is hoping to achieve what so many before him have failed to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran has one of the biggest chances to become the champions of Asia, but not everything in the tournament will go according to the plans we have,\u201d he tells the-AFC.com.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the tournament we have seen some exciting things happen which have made the tournament more interesting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe started well in the tournament; in the first match against Palestine we scored four goals. In the second match against Hong Kong we didn\u2019t show the quality that we have but we got the result that we wanted.”<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in the third match against UAE we were perfect, we started the match very well. We could have scored five goals, but three of them were ruled out by VAR.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn general we had a very good performance in the group stage and we should continue this good performance into the knockout stage too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up for Team Melli are Syria in the Round of 16 on Wednesday while a clash with Japan awaits in the quarter-finals should both nations progress.<\/p>\n
It makes for a difficult road to the title for the Iranians, but Taremi insists four seasons playing in Portugal\u2019s Primeira Liga and the UEFA Champions League for Porto have helped prepare the 31-year-old for moments such as these.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we feel the pressure then, for sure, it\u2019s going to affect the results that we\u2019re going to have in this tournament, so one of the plans we\u2019re following here is to think about the matches one by one,\u201d says Taremi.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery match is like a final for us and by thinking like this it\u2019s going to take the pressure off our shoulders and it will help us a lot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you are playing in clubs teams and you\u2019re playing in the UEFA Champions League your performance is going to improve. You\u2019re going to gain more confidence and when you come to Asia \u2013 with respect to Asia \u2013 it\u2019s a little bit different class, a different level.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the same time, we have the fans\u2019 expectations; that you\u2019re a top player, so you have to be very clever to manage this kind of pressure too. But I think in general it\u2019s going to help me improve, playing in this top level, to have a better performance in Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taremi\u2019s earliest memories of the AFC Asian Cup go back to Iran\u2019s run to the semi-finals in 2004 in China PR, when Branko Ivankovic\u2019s team recorded a 4-3 win in an epic quarter-final against Korea Republic before losing in a penalty shoot-out to the hosts in the last four.<\/p>\n
That was the second time in three tournaments that the Iranians, led by Taremi\u2019s future mentor Ali Daei, were knocked out in the semi-finals and the former Persepolis forward is hoping to go further than the man he credits with shaping his career.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on my position, and as a kid when you see a player who scores in every game it\u2019s very exciting, and that\u2019s why Ali Daei is my hero,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was playing in my city, in Bushehr, Ali Daei was head coach of Persepolis, one of the biggest clubs in Asia, and he brought me to Persepolis. It was so exciting for me, to see someone from television, to see him as a head coach.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iranian fans need no reminder of how long it has been since the country last claimed the AFC Asian Cup; since 1976 numerous teams have tried \u2013 and failed \u2013 to take the title to Tehran for a fourth time. Team Melli have turned up in Qatar for the current edition of the continental championship […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":935081,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20967],"tags":[3733,28042],"class_list":["post-935077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afc-news","tag-afc","tag-afc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=935077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/935081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=935077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=935077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=935077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}