Iran are riding high after their come-from-behind 2-1 win over Japan in the quarter-finals and Ghalehnoy is banking on plotting another successful game plan at Al Thumama Stadium to end Qatar\u2019s reign as champions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that tomorrow\u2019s match is very important. All that we did until now is to reach the final match,\u201d said Ghalehnoy. \u201cI told the players to forget the Japan match, what is important now is to beat Qatar and reach the final. We know they are a good team, the defending champions and have spent a lot to improve the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you have bad performances, sometimes you have good performances but we\u2019ve only had good performances so far. Even against Japan, we didn\u2019t concede a lot of chances. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe may make changes for the game but the level of the team is almost the same, so the quality of the starting XI will not be affected. Tactics that we make in every match, 70%-80% are related to the strength of our team and the balance related to the opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iran hold an impeccable recent record against Qatar, winning all six matches in all competitions dating back to 2013 but the 60-year-old tactician doesn\u2019t want complacency setting into his team. <\/p>\n
In fact, Ghalehnoy is demanding that his players do more than they did when they knocked Japan out as Iran look to reach their first AFC Asian Cup final since 1976.<\/p>\n
\u201cQatar reaching this stage means they are high quality. We cannot keep looking at the Japan result and think that will take us through. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to be more concentrated, show more quality and cover more distance. With all that, I hope that we can reach the final for the first time in a long time. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou can see from (Mehdi) Taremi\u2019s reaction in the last two games and see how united we are as a team and how much we want to do well in this competition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taremi will be available after serving a one-match suspension, with the Porto FC forward looking to add to his three goals.<\/p>\n
Taremi will only be one of several players Qatar will have to contain, with Team Melli also able to count on the likes of Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Sardar Azmoun and Saman Ghoddos for goals.<\/p>\n
However, Qatar head coach Lopez has a full squad to choose from and with Akram Afif, Hassan Al Haydos and Almoez Ali sharing eight goals in the competition, Qatar do have the arsenal to hurt Iran.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe recognise that it\u2019s going to be a very tough match,\u201d said Lopez. \u201cIt\u2019s our sixth game in a short period, so that will be physically demanding but we are still hopeful of a good performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cIran are a very strong team. We have not underestimated any team we have played in this competition so we will not start doing that against Iran.”<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course we enter this match with big motivation, we are one step away from the final. We have a chance to reach a second straight final which is a big driving factor for us.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attack of Iran is very strong and we are aware of this. We have plans for that and we will try to minimise their quality up front. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no talk about trying to take this match into penalties. We always play to win and that will be what we\u2019ll be doing tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran are riding high after their come-from-behind 2-1 win over Japan in the quarter-finals and Ghalehnoy is banking on plotting another successful game plan at Al Thumama Stadium to end Qatar\u2019s reign as champions. \u201cWe know that tomorrow\u2019s match is very important. All that we did until now is to reach the final match,\u201d said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":938535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20967],"tags":[3733,28042],"class_list":["post-938534","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\/938534","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\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=938534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/938534\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/938535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=938534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=938534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=938534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}