Queiroz plays down Iran’s chances at Asian Cup

Persianfootball.com – SYDNEY, Iran boss Carlos Queiroz played down Team Melli’s chances to win the Asian Cup, which will kick off in Australia this Friday, in an interview with Australian channel SBS.

“It’s nothing realistic, to be honest”, Queiroz said when being asked if Iran will win the Asian Cup.

“We are number one in [Asian] FIFA rankings, but that is not correct, because the best countries at the moment are Japan, Korea, Australia and other countries.

“With our limitations and the issues we faced during preparations – camps cancelled, no chances to pay for games, travel or camps – we only come here with our soul, our heart and our spirit, as we did before the World Cup.

“That would be our stance, the team spirit and the belief that together we can balance the insufficient preparations we unfortunately had ahead of this competition.”

Queiroz went on to explain that his decision to field a B team against Iraq came in order to give some players an opportunity to wear the national team shirt ahead of an official game.

“I cannot play this competition with only 11 or 12 players, I need other players.

“They are talented players but they need experience, because in a competition like the Asian Cup it’s all about quality and experience.

“We have some problems, but our attitude is no excuses, no sorries, no explanations, no bad feelings. We just use every single issue or problem that we have outside the pitch to make everybody more strong, more powerful, with a better belief and create the right spirit to compete every single minute, for every ball and in every duel and I hope we will succeed with that attitude.”

Asked if he will take a more offensive approach in Asian Cup that in World Cup, Queiroz was quick to deny Iran played a classic defending and counter attack strategy, explaining that his approach always was to defend and attack and that this will be no different in Asian Cup.

“If Bahrain will force us to defend, we must defend like the best team in the world. If we have the ball, as we did against Argentina, we attack all the time. We have only one thing in our mind, go down [the field] and then try to score. And this is exactly how we played against Argentina, Nigeria and Bosnia.”

Iran will begin their Asian Cup campaign against Bahrain in Melbourne on Sunday.

You can watch the full interview with Carlos Queiroz here.