{"id":35236,"date":"2019-01-27T00:34:04","date_gmt":"2019-01-27T08:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=35236"},"modified":"2019-01-27T01:11:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T09:11:10","slug":"preview-semi-final-ir-iran-v-japan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2019\/01\/27\/preview-semi-final-ir-iran-v-japan\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview – Semi-final: IR Iran v Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AFC – Al Ain, Ahead of the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 semi-final between two unbeaten giants of Asia, the-AFC.com looks at the key facts and history surrounding the eagerly-anticipated clash.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Taremi for Team Melli<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n major team news ahead of the semi-final is the enforced absence of Mehi\n Taremi, who will miss Monday’s clash through suspension having \ncollected a second yellow card against China PR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While\n card trouble has cost them the Al Gharafa star, who has scored three \ngoals in UAE 2019, the Iranians will welcome back Vahid Amiri, while \nYoshinuri Muto returns from suspension for Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outstanding yellow cards were erased following the quarter-finals, meaning only a red card in Monday’s match will result in a player missing the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Statistical streaks: Beiranvand and Japan<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carlos\n Queiroz’s Iran have become one of only three teams in history to go \nthrough their first five games at an AFC Asian Cup without conceding a \ngoal, but the amazing record of goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand goes back \neven further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n Persepolis shot-stopper has represented his country in 20 competitive \nmatches (including UAE 2019 and FIFA World Cup qualifiers and finals) \nand conceded only four goals, keeping a remarkable 17 clean sheets, with\n only Portugal, Spain and Syria finding a way past him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan have claimed a piece of statistical history of their own in the UAE. Hajime Moriyasu’s side are the first ever to win five successive matches by a single-goal winning margin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asian powerhouses, divergent histories<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\n two sides are both Asian football powerhouses, having qualified for the\n past two FIFA World Cups – and in Japan’s case, every edition since \n1998 – but the East Asians have had far more recent success on the \ncontinental stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Iran are enjoying the excitement of being 90 minutes away from reaching the AFC Asian Cup final for the first time since 1976, Japan have been champions in four of the last seven editions, and three of the current squad were part of the victorious 2011 team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Japan have only ever lost once at this stage of the competition, a \n3-2 defeat to Saudi Arabia in 2007, which was also the last time the \nSamurai Blue lost any AFC Asian Cup match outside of penalty shootouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite making their first appearance in the last four since 2004, Iran have not a lost a single AFC Asian Cup match inside 90 minutes this century, with three of their previous eliminations coming from the penalty spot, and the other two – both defeats to Korea Republic – suffered in extra time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfamiliar foes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite\n their permanent presence in the latter stages of both the AFC Asian Cup\n and FIFA World Cup qualifying, Japan and Iran have consistently managed\n to avoid each other in competition draws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\n has been over a decade since their last competitive fixture, a 2-1 \nSamurai Blue win in 2005, while their last AFC Asian Cup clash came way \nback in 1992, with Japan’s Kazuyoshi Miura – who is remarkably still \nplaying professional football in 2019 – scoring the only goal in a 1-0 \nwin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

AFC – Al Ain, Ahead of the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019 semi-final between two…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,175,84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-asian-cup","category-c47-featured-news"],"views":1878,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35236","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35242,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35236\/revisions\/35242"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}