Coach: Iran progression ´fantastic accomplishment´

Afshin Ghotbi has predicted great things to come for Iran after they successfully negotiated the Asian Cup’s ‘group of death’.

Iran became the first nation through to the last eight of Asia’s premier national soccer tournament with a 1-0 win over North Korea in Qatar on Saturday.

The win – combined with their earlier 2-1 triumph over Iraq – sees Iran secure a top-two finish in Group D, dubbed the ‘group of death’ due to the calibre of opponents.

Karim Ansari Fard provided the winner for Iran, guiding a cross from Malavan midfielder Pejman Nouri beyond North Korea goalkeeper Myong-Guk Ri in the 62nd minute.

An elated Ghotbi was thrilled his charges have been able to stand tall against such high-quality opponents.

“The qualification of our team, for me, is a fantastic accomplishment,” the Iran boss said.

“Our group was the ‘group of death’ and I still believe it is the most difficult group in the tournament. To achieve this result two games in a row, I’m very proud of my players.”

“Iran is capable of playing much better football. We will show that in the coming games. We will be fitter and more confident and hopefully you’ll see much better performances from our team.”

Ansari Fard’s was one of few real chances in a limp encounter, but Ghotbi blamed the dour spectacle on Iran’s opponents.

“We (Iran and North Korea) have a completely different vision,” he said.

“We want to attack, we want to create chances, we want to play exciting football and they just want to defend and wait for the right moment to counter.”

“Playing North Korea is always difficult, they defend with numbers, they are organised, they are disciplined, they fight, they have pace and they are dangerous on the counter-attack.”

“I think we showed patience and were able to pick our moments and the times when we were able to move the ball with the speed that we needed to, we were able to find space and eventually score the goal.”

North Korea coach Jo Tong-sop identified his side’s defensive lapses in set pieces as key to the loss, which leaves the North Koreans on the brink of elimination from the tournament.

“I think the players did well according to the instructions but the weakness for our team was the set-pieces and the throw-ins and we conceded the goal from the throw in,” Top-sop said.

“I instructed the players to do the same as they did in the first-half, which was to not to let the Iranian team play through balls, concentrate on stopping their forward line and be wary of set-pieces and throw-ins.”

North Korea, who have just one point to show from two fixtures, will need to beat Iraq in their final group match to have any chance of progressing.

Tong-sop insists a win is not beyond them, despite his side having yet to register a goal in 180 minutes of football.

“Of course we have only one point, so the next match is very critical for our team to go for the knockout stage but we will try our best to win the match so that we can proceed to the next round,” he said.

“In terms of the system, we converted to 4-4-2 and we combine attack and defence and in this way we created new tactics for our team.”

“For the next match, I think we have to again put the emphasis on defence and try to score goals on the counter-attack.”