{"id":28178,"date":"2017-05-25T22:56:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T05:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=28178"},"modified":"2017-05-25T22:56:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T05:56:29","slug":"afc-u-20-futsal-championship-final-iran-vs-iraq-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2017\/05\/25\/afc-u-20-futsal-championship-final-iran-vs-iraq-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"AFC U-20 Futsal Championship Final &#8211; Iran vs. Iraq [PREVIEW]"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; BANGKOK, <strong>The Islamic Republic of Iran will face Iraq in the final of the AFC U-20 Futsal Championship final on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With their qualification to the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires secured, it will be the battle for top prize and to achieve a perfect unbeaten record in the tournament. Group D table-toppers Iran have only conceded nine goals, compared to Iraq\u2019s 11.  <\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s most thrilling game was undoubtedly the semi-final match against the host nation on Wednesday. In a scintillating end to end game, both teams were incessant in their bid to overcome their opposition. The encounter went to extra time during which Ali Arani\u2019s side eventually clinched with a two-goal cushion.<\/p>\n<p>Iraq\u2019s match against Thailand on Matchday Six proved to be most decisive. It was a match to determine the Group A winner. Ali Talib\u2019s side went into the half-time break with a 3-1 lead, only for the host nation to return more aggressively with a two goal reply, but the Iraqis held their ground to record a famous 7-3 victory and claim top spot in a six-team Group A.<\/p>\n<p><strong>IRAN<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>6 successive wins<br \/>\nScored: 40<br \/>\nConceded: 9 <\/p>\n<p>Leading goalscorer: Hamzah Kadkhoda with 7<\/p>\n<p><strong>Iran Head Coach Ali Arani:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m sure the match with Iraq will require high concentration from both sides. Of course it will have its own conditions and situations, but it will most probably be a really tough game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe U-20 team here want to be a part of the senior national team one day, and winning this tournament will help their chances. Also as a human being, we will keep wanting to achieve and be the best.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>IRAQ<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>7 successive wins<br \/>\nScored: 31<br \/>\nConceded: 11<\/p>\n<p>Leading goalscorer: Abbas Ali with 5<\/p>\n<p><strong>Iraq Head Coach Ali Talib:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will need new strategies and a new plan against Iran tomorrow. It will definitely be the toughest match we will have faced, but it won&#8217;t be difficult for us.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will take the trophy home and win in Argentina [2018 Summer Youth Olympics].\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AFC &#8211; BANGKOK, The Islamic Republic of Iran will face Iraq in the final of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":28179,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157,84,88,139,91,86,133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afc-u23","category-c47-featured-news","category-c15-futsal","category-irans-u23","category-c20-other-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-c14-youth-teams"],"views":4306,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28178","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=28178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}