2026 AFC U-23 Asian Cup Qualification Thread

[perspolis#1]

We are in a group with UAE, Hong Kong, Guam.

Top team will go through to the Asian Cup.
Top 4 second best teams in the 11 groups will also qualify.


The U23 Asian Cup held in January of 2026 will determine who gets into the Olympics


Our first game is on September 3rd(today) at 17:30 Abu Dhabi local time vs Hong Kong.


Matches:
September 3rd, 2025 17:30 Abu Dhabi Iran- Hong Kong
September 6th, 2025 17:30 Abu Dhabi Guam- Iran
September 9th, 2025: 21:30 Abu Dhabi UAE- Iran


Our Squad:
GKs: Arsha Shakouri, Mohammad Khalifeh, Amir Mahdi Maghsoudi, Mohammad Ali Shakiba

DF: Seyed Mehdi Mahdavi, Farzin Moamelehgari, Daniel Eiri, Arshia Vosoughifar, Mohammadmehdi Zare, Soheil Sahraei, Masoud Mohebbi.

MF: Pouria Latififar, Mohammad Javad Hosseinejad, Yadegar Rostami, Abbas Habibi, Amirreza Sheykhirad, Mahdi Goudarzi, Amir Mohammad Razzaghinia, Mahdi Jafari, Alireza Safari

FW: Esmaeil Gholizadeh, Reza Ghandipour, Kasra Taheri, Mohammad Hossein Sadeghi, Erfan Jamshidi, Saeid Saharkhizan

[Super Shojaei]

Can’t wait for Javad to show Guam who’s boss

[perspolis#1]

https://darya.stream/live-tv/varzish-tv-live/

Game live on Varzesh

[perspolis#1]

Hong Kong running a 5-4-1 formation Park the Bus and counter

[perspolis#1]

Hong Kong LM is cooking our RB on every 1v1

[perspolis#1]

Khalifeh our goalie looks better with his feet than Beiranvand

[perspolis#1]

Our defense(like all age levels) tries to play smart with the ball until they make a dumb mistake and lead to damgerous counters

[perspolis#1]

As much as I hate the robotic nature of modern football, I think coaches need to teach our young players not to slapshot every ball outside the box especially when the ball is an upbounce, curving, low probability shot

[perspolis#1]

Halftime Iran 0- 0 Hong Kong

We didnt really test the GK given the parked bus but are clearly better overall so far

[perspolis#1]

We need some coaching instructions to have someone run behind the defense. We are just trying shots from outside at random

[perspolis#1]

Terrible camerawork

[perspolis#1]

70' Iran scores off a freekick

Everyone misses the service and it goes in instead.

Need to hold on. HK started attacking aggressively right after and got a shot off

[perspolis#1]

72 Razzaghinia with an outisde the box calmly placed shot to make it 2-0

Game should be killed off now

[perspolis#1]

3-0 Iran 86'

Kasra Taheri

They did what was needed with balls behind the line and cutbacks

[perspolis#1]

4-0 Iran 91'

Iran 4-0 Hong Kong

Taheri Brace