Iran National Football Team Defeats Qatar in First World Cup Qualifier

On Thursday, September 2, the Iran national football team won their first match for qualification to the 2018 World Cup in Russia, defeating the Qatar national team 2-0 in a controversial and thrilling game at Azadi Stadium in Tehran. Reza Ghoochannejhad scored in the 90+4 minute and Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored in the 90+6 minute. With this victory, Iran earned three points and, due to a better goal difference compared to South Korea and Uzbekistan, topped Group A at the end of the first day of the World Cup qualifiers. In other matches in this group, South Korea managed to overcome China with a score of 3-2, while Uzbekistan also secured their first three points by defeating Syria 1-0. Iran is set to play their second match against China next Tuesday in the latter's home ground. The match between Iran and Qatar was relatively balanced until the 90th minute, but in the 90+2 minute, a glaring mistake by the Qatari goalkeeper allowed the ball to reach Ansarifard right in front of the goal. He then made a good pass to Ghoochannejhad, who scored the first goal of the match. After this goal, players from both teams engaged in a fierce confrontation, escalating the atmosphere in the stadium. In those moments, players from both teams had a physical altercation. After the altercations ended and the game resumed, the referee sent off Iran's coach, Javad Nekounam. In the 100th minute, Alireza Jahanbakhsh made a great move to reach the edge of the Qatari penalty area and scored Iran's second goal with a powerful and beautiful shot. The lineup for the Iran national team included: Alireza Beiranvand, Ehsan Hajsafi, Jalal Hosseini, Saeid Ezatollahi, Andranik Teymourian, Pejman Montazeri, Mehdi Taremi, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Sardar Azmoun, Ashkan Dejagah (substituted for Vahid Amiri in the 68th minute), and Ramin Rezaiyan. The lineup for the Qatar national team included: Amin Lecomte, Abdulkarim Hassan, Luiz Junior, Ali Asadallah, Rodrigo Tabata, Hassan Al-Haydos, Pedro Correa, Khoukhi, Ahmad Yasser, Karim Bougherra, and Sebastian Soria.