{"id":11817,"date":"2011-01-10T21:49:48","date_gmt":"2011-01-11T05:49:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/01\/10\/ghotbi-anticipates-advert-for-asian-football\/"},"modified":"2011-01-10T21:49:48","modified_gmt":"2011-01-11T05:49:48","slug":"ghotbi-anticipates-advert-for-asian-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2011\/01\/10\/ghotbi-anticipates-advert-for-asian-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghotbi anticipates \u2018advert for Asian football\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ghotbiflag\"AFC – DOHA, Iran coach Afshin Ghotbi expects his side\u2019s hotly anticipated clash with neighbours Iraq in their AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2011\u2122 Group D opener on Sunday to provide the perfect advert for Asian football. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The match at Al Rayyan Stadium pitches the reigning champions against an Iran side that has captured the title on three previous occasions.<\/p>\n

Ghotbi, who will step down after the AFC Asian Cup to take charge of Japanese side Shimizu S-Pulse, has already stated in the build up to the tournament that he expects Iran to mount a serious challenge for a fourth title.<\/p>\n

And though the 46-year-old knows his team have been handed a far from easy start against Iraq, he is sure it will prove a memorable encounter between the regional rivals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very happy to play the 2007 champions in the first match,\u201d said the former Perspolis (Pirouzi) boss. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am sure the world will be watching so I hope we can create an exciting match and show the progress of Asian football.<\/p>\n

\u201cIraq are a good team, they are champions of the last tournament and have a lot of quality. They have a good chance to go far in this tournament but I believe my team is better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of some concern to Iran though is their indifferent form in the build-up to the tournament.<\/p>\n

After losing 2-0 to Kuwait in the West Asian Football Federation Championship last October, Team Melli were then beaten 3-0 in a friendly with Brazil before playing out an uninspiring goalless draw with AFC Asian Cup hosts Qatar.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Ghotbi has faith in the players at his disposal to challenge for a first continental title since 1976.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think any coach, when he takes on a job, has to set targets for his team,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the passion of the fans and quality of football in Iran is so high.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have the quality to win this tournament. There are some events we cannot control so we have to leave that a little bit to the higher power and I hope we have that bit of luck that is necessary to become the champions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But despite his confidence in the ability of his team, Ghotbi was keen to play down the necessity of getting a positive result in the opening game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are nine points to fight for (in the group),\u201d he continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf we lose the match we don\u2019t lose hope to progress to the next round. <\/p>\n

\u201cRegardless of the outcome of tomorrow\u2019s match we will go on because our target is not only to win the opening match; it is to go to the second round.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – DOHA, Iran coach Afshin Ghotbi expects his side\u2019s hotly anticipated clash with neighbours…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":10861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c13-team-melli-news"],"views":3162,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22614"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}