Albion at the Asian Cup: Semi Final Round Up
Brighton and Hove Albion’s final representative at the Asian Cup is out after Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Iran fell to semi final heartbreak against Japan.
Two goals from Yuya Osako and one from Genki Haraguchi gave Japan a 3-0 success and booked their place in Friday’s final against either Qatar or the tournament hosts, the United Arab Emirates.
Both sides came into the tie having not conceded a goal in their five games to date but Iran had no answer to the Samurai Blue’s attacking threat as they scored three unanswered times in the second half.
Jahanbakhsh was a peripheral figure through, receiving a 5/10 rating from Fox Sports Asia who said, “The Brighton & Hove Albion forward only got going in the second half and barely. His best contribution was a free kick in the 61st minute saved by Shuichi Gonda.” Sounds familiar.
Iran began the clash much the better side and Jahanbakhsh nearly played in Sardar Azmoun early on but he was beaten to the ball by Japan’s impressive centre back Takehiro Tomiyasu.
At the other end, Jahanbakhsh was then caught out by Osako’s ball in behind him which allowed Yuto Nagatomo to burst forward and send in a low cross that Takumi Minamino fired wide.
Iran’s best chance of the first half came when Azmoun was denied by the foot of Gonda in the Japan goal as the opening 45 minutes finished goalless.
It was a moment of schoolboy naivety from Iran that allowed Japan to take the lead just before the hour mark. Hossein Kanani ignored the basic rule of “play to the whistle” when he began protesting to the referee after a collision with Minamino, who took full advantage to scamper after the ball and cross to Osako to head home.
Jahanbakhsh’s free kick came shortly after, Gonda acrobatically tipping it over the bar in what proved to be the Albion’s record signing’s last contribution of the game as he made way for Mehdi Torabi.
Iran were 2-0 down by that point, Minamino’s cut back into the box hitting the arm of Morteza Pouraliganji as he slid into the box with VAR confirming it was a penalty, giving Osako the chance to send Alireza Beiranvand the wrong way from the spot.
That was game, set and match and Japan added their third in injury time when Haraguchi fired a shot in off the post.
Iran’s elimination means that Jahanbakhsh should be back for the Albion’s game with Watford this weekend. He hasn’t played for the club since the 3-1 defeat at Everton at the start of November after picking up a “minor hamstring knock” which kept him out for the next 11 weeks.
Chris Hughton will no doubt be hoping the run of games he’s got under his belt while on international duty will finally allow Jahanbakhsh to give some indication of why we’ve paid £17m for him as so far, he’s done very little in his Brighton career to justify such a huge outlay.
