{"id":26220,"date":"2016-10-06T10:12:36","date_gmt":"2016-10-06T17:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=26220"},"modified":"2016-10-06T10:16:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-06T17:16:10","slug":"russia-2018-asian-qualifiers-third-round-uzbekistan-0-1-iran-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2016\/10\/06\/russia-2018-asian-qualifiers-third-round-uzbekistan-0-1-iran-video\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia 2018 Asian Qualifiers Third Round: Uzbekistan 0-1 Iran [VIDEO]"},"content":{"rendered":"

AFC – TASHKENT, A Jalal Hosseini header ended Uzbekistan\u2019s 100% record in third round qualifying for the 2018 FIFA World Cup as Islamic Republic of Iran defeated the Central Asians 1-0 in Tashkent on Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Uzbekistan came into the tie on the back of 1-0 wins over Syria and Qatar, but Hosseini\u2019s goal on 27 minutes proved the difference maker as Carlos Queiroz\u2019s team picked up their seventh point in three games to remain unbeaten so far.<\/p>\n

Samvel Babayan\u2019s side tried to respond in the second half but having lost playmaker Server Djeparov to injury just before the break, the White Wolves failed to break down a stout Iranian defence and suffered their first defeat of the qualifying campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we deserved this victory,\u201d said Queiroz. \u201cUzbekistan also played well, but they controlled the ball in their area. We tried to go on the counterattack when we took the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t give many chances to Uzbekistan. They didn\u2019t show their usual performance, and that was to our advantage. We blocked them every time they had dangerous shots and I congratulate my team on this positive result.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the battle for the World Cup will continue. We took three points today, but we need more victories and points. It is just one more step towards our target. If any team makes any mistake in Tashkent they will lose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uzbekistan went into the game without captain Odil Akhmedov due to his inability to recover from injury, while Queiroz made a raft of changes to his midfield and attack with an eye on the crunch match with Korea Republic on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

One of those changes, Reza Goochannejhad, could have opened the scoring inside 10 minutes but he sliced his volley high and wide after he was picked out inside the area by full-back Ramin Rezaeian\u2019s fine cross.<\/p>\n

Iran did go in front before the half-hour mark, though, as centre-back Hosseini connected with a smart header from Masoud Shojaei\u2019s inswinging free-kick from the right that left goalkeeper Aleksandr Lobanov helpless.<\/p>\n

The hosts suffered a further blow five minutes before half-time as two-time AFC Player of the Year and captain on the night Djeparov was withdrawn from the field in a great deal of discomfort to be replaced by Alexander Geynrikh.<\/p>\n

Uzbekistan begun the second period strongly and pushed forward in search of the leveller but struggled to penetrate the Iran backline.<\/p>\n

Inside the final 20 minutes, substitute Jaloliddin Masharipov was brought down on the edge of the area in a hugely promising position but Geynrikh\u2019s free-kick summed up Uzbekistan\u2019s night as it hit the wall and rebounded away harmlessly.<\/p>\n

And Iran could have ended the match even more comfortably as Sardar Azmoun, a second half replacement for Ghoochannejhad, played in Vahid Amiri but Lobanov was quick off his line to deny the midfielder, but Queiroz\u2019s team still managed to see out the remaining minutes unscathed.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately we lost the game,\u201d said Babayan. \u201cThe players tried to battle until the end of the match, but we couldn\u2019t create chances without Akhmedov. We created some moments, but the team didn\u2019t realise them. Now we have the next game and we need to pay attention to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe lost the fight in the first 30 minutes tonight. Besides that, we couldn\u2019t create any chances through the middle and those were the main reasons for our defeat tonight. We can\u2019t play well in midfield without Akhmedov. Our defenders played well, but we lost many battles in the centre.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=cd5CC0OnLIo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – TASHKENT, A Jalal Hosseini header ended Uzbekistan\u2019s 100% record in third round qualifying…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":26221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":4320,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220","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\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26220"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26220\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}