{"id":37707,"date":"2019-10-11T16:18:41","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T23:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=37707"},"modified":"2019-10-11T16:18:43","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T23:18:43","slug":"ir-iran-live-up-to-wilmots-expectations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2019\/10\/11\/ir-iran-live-up-to-wilmots-expectations\/","title":{"rendered":"IR Iran live up to Wilmots’ expectations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

AFC – TEHRAN, Marc Wilmots was glowing with pride after seeing his Islamic Republic of Iran side produce a wonderful display of attacking football against Cambodia in their Asian Qualifiers Group C tie on Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karim Ansarifard scored four, Sardar Azmoun three, Mehdi Taremi and Mohammad Mohebi two each with Ahmad Noorollahi, Hossein Kanaani and Mehrdad Mohammadi also on the scoresheet as Team Melli took another step towards qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was Iran’s second win in as many matches, having defeated Hong \nKong 2-0 last month, but what was extremely satisfying for Wilmots was \nhis team playing attacking football for the whole 90 minutes in front of\n their appreciative fans, including several thousand women who were \nwatching Team Melli live at the Azadi Stadium for the first time in \ndecades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had said we would play attacking football against Cambodia and I am glad that the team did just that,” said the Belgian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

It took Iran just five minutes to open the scoring and Team Melli, \nhaving raced to a 7-0 lead going into the half-time break, would not \nhave been faulted had they taken it easy in the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was not to be as they continued with their swashbuckling display\n of football, scoring another seven goals past a beleaguered Cambodia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The win, said Wilmots, was a confidence booster for the younger players in the squad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re still in a transitional phase as new players have been added \nto the team,\u201d said Wilmots, who took over from Carlos Quieroz as head \ncoach following the AFC Asian Cup UAE 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The job came with high expectations, with Queiroz having led Iran to \nsuccessive FIFA World Cup Finals appearances and former attacking \nmidfielder Wilmots agreed that there is still much to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an important match with Bahrain (in Riffa on Tuesday) and we need to keep our concentration. We want three points. We haven’t done anything yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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