Iran defeats China 4-1 in CFA International Youth football tournament
The Iran national under-17 football team, domestically commonly known as Nojavanan, has posted its first win at the Chinese Football Association (CFA) International Youth (U17) football tournament in China, beating the hosts.
The Iranian team, which sustained a narrow 0-1 loss from Japan in its opening match on May 16, clinched a 4-1 win over the Chinese side in a fixture staged in the eastern-central coastal city of Jiangyin on Friday.
Both teams started the game with vim and vigor, and were assessing each others’ strengths and weakness and the likelihood of scoring.
Iranian footballers found themselves 1-0 down after just 12 minutes thanks to a own goal.
Abolfazl Alizadeh attempted to play the ball out, but made a terrible mistake and it went horribly wrong as goalkeeper was unable to stop the rolling ball into the net.
The Iranian team quickly retained composure. Amir Ja’afari slammed a header two minutes later that kissed the net and equalized the match.
Even though Iran and China had a number of scoring chances in the remainder of the first half, both sides ended the period tied at one.
Nojavanan head coach Abbas Chamanyan brought Hossein Hajizadeh and Mehdi Seyyedi as substitutes after the interval. They replaced Shervin Rezaei and Amirhossein Azizi respectively.
It took young Iranian footballers only 10 minutes, when Hajizadeh penetrated through the opposite side's half of the field, beat two Chinese defenders and put Iran 2-1 in front.
Iranians then achieved fairly greater dominance over the pitch, and had more ball possession.
Only ten minutes from the end of regulation time, Alireza Bavieh sent a long pass to Hajizadeh who made no hesitation to jab Iran’s third goal.
But it was not enough for Nojavanan. China’s custodian tried to clear the ball two minutes into the added time, but failed as Hajizadeh had stood at the edge of the box.
He completed his hat trick and sealed Iran’s 4-1 victory.
The Iran national under-17 football team is scheduled to play against Kyrgyzstan in its last match of the tournament on Sunday.
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