{"id":18568,"date":"2014-06-17T12:24:38","date_gmt":"2014-06-17T19:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=18568"},"modified":"2014-06-18T05:16:50","modified_gmt":"2014-06-18T12:16:50","slug":"irans-satisfaction-is-nigerias-disappointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2014\/06\/17\/irans-satisfaction-is-nigerias-disappointment\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran\u2019s satisfaction is Nigeria\u2019s disappointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIFA.com – CURITIBA, The first draw of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil\u2122 came on Monday afternoon, in the 13th match of the tournament. While that number brought the well-organised Asians no misfortune, the same could not be said for their African opponents, who went away with less than they had hoped for.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Chances were few and far between in the Group F match at Curitiba\u2019s Arena da Baixada. Though the Super Eagles went into the game as favourites, on account of the experience and quality of their players, it was Team Melli who created the clearest chance of the match.<\/p>\n

Speaking to FIFA.com after the goalless draw, Iran\u2019s Portuguese coach Carlos Queiroz revealed how his players felt about their afternoon\u2019s work: \u201cWe\u2019re relieved to have got the point. We\u2019re up against Argentina in our next game and if we\u2019d lost this match, then we would have left ourselves in a very tricky situation. We are very happy, because Iran have got much less to work with than other sides.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former Real Madrid coach added that the key to his side\u2019s performance lay in the sheer commitment and determination of his players: \u201cThey played a fantastic game in terms of their concentration, discipline and their willingness to work for each other. That was our biggest asset. The most important thing we can take from this game is that our morale is high. It\u2019s shown that we can get results.\u201d<\/p>\n

Iran captain Javad Nekounam echoed his coach\u2019s words: \u201cWe started the game well. We knew it wasn\u2019t going to be easy at all and we also knew that we\u2019d lose if we didn\u2019t keep our focus. We are happier with the result than they are, but we can\u2019t just settle for what we\u2019ve got. We only have one point and we still have two very difficult games ahead of us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did everything well,\u201d continued the ex-Osasuna midfielder, who is optimistic about Iran\u2019s immediate future. \u201cWe could have snatched a win in the last 20 minutes, but we lacked the finishing touch. I think that\u2019s the area we need to improve in. When you consider that a lot of our players were making their World Cup debuts, it\u2019s been a very good day for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other side of the coin<\/strong>
\nAs for the Nigerians, who have now gone nine FIFA World Cup games without a win, the result was far from expected, as Super Eagles coach Stephen Keshi explained: \u201cWe played very well in the first half. The forwards were very active and they had a couple of chances to score, though we couldn\u2019t put them away. We lost our shape in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI felt we could have won the game but we were lacking a bit of inspiration on the pitch. All credit to Iran. They stuck to their gameplan and were able to put it into practice from start to finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Budweiser Man of the Match John Obi Mikel, the result was not what he wanted: \u201cNaturally we\u2019re disappointed because we know what it means to win your opening match at the World Cup. We thought we had a good chance of winning. We created some openings in the first half and I think we deserved to score. Iran kept us at bay, though, and they were well organized at the back.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to raise our game if we want to reach the next round,\u201d said the Chelsea midfielder, offering a frank assessment of the task facing Nigeria. \u201cWe prepared very well for this World Cup and we can\u2019t afford to drop another point in our remaining games.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIFA.com – CURITIBA, The first draw of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil\u2122 came on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22614,"featured_media":18569,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":5462,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18568","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=18568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}