Albion at the Asian Cup: Quarter Final Round Up
Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Iran have a big semi to look forward to in the United Arab Emirates but Maty Ryan and Australia’s hopes of retaining their Asian Cup title came to a shuddering halt with a shock defeat against the host nation.
The Socceroos’ elimination, combined with an even bigger surprise as much-fancied South Korea were knocked out by Qatar, leaves Iran as the new 5/4 favourites to win the tournament for the first time in 43 years.
They’ll face Japan in the semi finals on Monday after sweeping aside China 3-0 in the last eight to maintain their outstanding record of not having conceded a goal in their five matches so far.
Jahanbakhsh started his third game of the tournament since overcoming that “minor hamstring injury” that had kept him on the sidelines for 11 weeks and although he couldn’t repeat his goal scoring heroics from the round of 16 win over Oman, he got through 68 minutes of diligent work as the right sided midfielder in Carlos Quieroz’s 4-2-3-1 formation.
Iran took the lead with 18 minutes played, China defender Feng Xiaoting looking like he had his mind on feng shui rather than football as he was dispossessed by Sardar Azmoun who then squared for Mehdi Taremi to net.
That was Taremi’s third goal of the competition so far although he’ll have to wait for number four, a 67th minute booking meaning that he’ll be suspended for the semi final.
Azmoun himself added the second from a move that would’ve had the Amex crowd screaming “HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOF” as a huge punt up the pitch saw the Rubin Kazan striker out muscle Liu Yiming before rounding goalkeeper Yan Junling to finish.
Jahanbakhsh nearly had a goal early in the second half but he curled his effort just the wrong side of Yan’s left-hand post. Iran’s third and final goal eventually arrived in injury time as Karim Ansarifard took advantage of another defensive mistake to wrap up victory.
It was a defensive howler that also put paid to Australia’s chances of joining Iran in the last four as Milos Degenek gifted the UAE the only goal of the game in Abu Dhabi.
There seemed little danger when Degenek had the ball at his feet in the 68th minute but his attempted pass back to Ryan was criminally under hit and UAE striker Ali Mabkhout needed no second invitation to latch onto the loose ball, round Ryan and fire into an empty net. Think Shane Duffy against Huddersfield Town last season and you’re getting close.
One of the things that it’s hard not to love about Australians is the way they just say it like it is and Degenek is no different. His post match comments afterwards were absolutely fantastic, telling Fox Sports Australia: “We didn’t go through because of me. I let the team down, the boys down, the country down. It’s a shit situation. It’s fucked.”
Fucked it was, but it could have been even more so had Ryan not pulled off an excellent save in the first minute when standing tall to deny Ismail Alhammad.
The stats show that the Socceroos had 22 shots but only two of those were on target, which goes a long way to explaining why they were eliminated. Graham Arnold’s side struggled to find a way through a packed UAE defence and as a result, they resorted to desperate long range efforts which the home crowd gleefully cheered every time they failed to hit the target.
The good news from an Albion point of view is that the defeat means that Ryan will be back in Brighton in time for Tuesday night’s game away at Fulham.
Chris Hughton has said he will have to assess Ryan for tiredness and jet lag before he makes a decision on whether he plays, but the smart money will be on the Seagulls number one returning between the posts two games earlier than many of us thought he would. Which will be nice.
