The 17th Asian Nations Cup will begin on January 15th with the match between UAE and Bahrain, in which our national football team will be featured in group D with Iraq, Vietnam, and Yemen.
The top two teams will qualify for the round of sixteen along with the four best third-placed teams. The quarter-finals will be played on January 23rd and 24th respectively, while the semi-finals will be staged on 27th and 28th of the same month. The final will be played on February 2019 at the Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
The main challenge for the Iranian national team in the Asian cup should be the semi-finals, in which it will face powerful teams like Japan and Australia.
In the group’s round, Iran should not allow any team of its group to be compromised because otherwise, the Iranian elimination games will be much harder than the head of the group. But if the players can act as expected, they will be the first team in the 16th round, and as a result, they will not be matched up against a prominent competitor in the semi-finals.
Queiroz’s players will have six months to prepare themselves to end the 43-year- frustration in the Asian cup after getting qualified games behind in the Russian World Cup 2018. It is hoped that the Football Federation will now qualify for the fourth Asian championship by making the right decisions and taking the necessary measures to return proudly to Iranian Football history.
The work of the Iranian national team will start in the semi-finals, where they will face one of the teams like Japan and Australia. Both are as powerful as our national team and have chances, like Iran, to win the title. In fact, passing through the semi-finals is the most challenging process for the Iranian national team, and if they pass through this stage well, the 2019 Asian Cup finals can match Iran with one of the three other Asian powers, namely South Korea, UAE, or Saudi Arabia. Of course, they are strong, but it wouldn’t be hard to beat them rather than Australia and Japan.
On the other hand, it’s said that Carlos Queiroz will soon come to Tehran to begin his actions for the powerful presence of the Iranian national team in the Asian Cup.
He even listed the Iranian national team for the tournament and put it at the disposal of the federation’s officials. The players will be invited to the national team according to this list. Iran launched its start for the strong presence in the championship on the 9th of September.
It’s even possible that Massoud Shojaee and Dejaga are on the Queiroz’s list. After the departure of Gucci to the national team, Kaveh Reza’i is likely to be added to the team. Also, the status of the coach is unclear, but it is said that if Carlos Queiroz stays, he returns and leads the Iranian national team in the tournament.
It seems unlikely that there will be a change in the overall arrangement of Iran. Carlos was pleased with the team’s performance in Russia. Beiranwood is the goalkeeper for the team. Pouraliganji and Majid Hosseini are midfielders. Milad Mohammadi on the left and Ramin Rezaiyan on the right. Omid Ebrahimi and Saeed Ezzatollahi are two defensive midfielders of Iran. Ansarifard will be in the middle. If Sardar returns, he will be the fix striker. If he doesn’t come back, it is likely that Ansarifard will play as the striker. Saman Qoddos did not play much in the World Cup but showed high quality, therefore, he will definitely be one of the main players in the Asian Cup. It’s likely that the name of two or three players will be added to the list in the coming days.
Following the announcement of the list, the national team manager said: “As we move to the Asian Cup, I want to express my gratitude to every player who is motivated, and they showed up professionally, and I’m sure that players who are not on the list will have an opportunity in the near future.”
After the powerful presence of the Iranian national team in the World Cup 2018, there is a lot of hope that after 43 years, the Asian Cup will return glory to Iranian sports again.
