Iran must be cautious against Syria: Ghalenoi

Tehran – Amir Ghalenoi, the technical director of the Iranian national team, cautioned his team against making mistakes when facing Syria in the Round of 16 of the 2023 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar at the Abdullah bin Khalifa Stadium on Wednesday.

The Iranian team leads Group C with a perfect nine points, scoring seven goals and conceding only two. However, they now face the challenge of Syria, which was one of the best defensive teams in the group stage, having conceded only one goal. This was reported by the Asian Football Confederation in Group Two.

Ghalenoi said, “I believe this is one of the most important matches in this tournament. We will face a disciplined team. We need to make fewer mistakes and be tactically and technically better than in the previous two matches.” He added, “We know that we cannot afford any mistakes. We’ve seen Iraq and the UAE exit, so we need to be extremely cautious in our performance.”

Iran is expected to miss the services of two key defenders in Wednesday’s match, but Ghalenoi remained confident in his team’s ability to deliver a strong performance, urging them to showcase their qualities against a challenging opponent.

“Right now, Sadeq Moharrami and Mortaza Pouraliganji are not with us, but it’s not a big gap we’re dealing with. All our players and the current team can stay with us until the next World Cup, so we don’t plan to make any generational shifts. Any changes will be gradual.”

“I believe football today revolves around lines and team structure. Hector Cuper played the same type of football when he was in Valencia and with all his other teams. We changed the team’s philosophy from defense to offense, and the statistics in the group stage support that.”

“I hope the players can showcase their technical quality. I always tell them that you must always follow the tactical instructions from the coaching staff, but it’s also important to demonstrate your individual technical abilities.”