ALLAN D’CRUZ

FATORDA: Asian powerhouse Iran broke their quarter-finals jinx as they sneaked past Mexico with a nervy 2-1 in the FIFA U-17 World Cup match, at Nehru Stadium, Fatorda, on Wednesday.

Two first half strikes from Mohammed Sharifi (7th minute) and Allahyar Sayyad (11th minute) were enough for Abbas Chamanian colts to progress into the next round despite De La Rosa had restored hope in Mexican camp. Iran will now take on Spain in the last eight match.

Playing their fourth World Cup, Iran had never made it through into the quarter-finals in the past but with their current form in the tournament, it would have been wrong to rule them out. However, Mexico who at the other end played some good brand of football, had never recorded a win in the group phase, but had the history on their side. 

The Central American side, were clear dominant side in the opening minutes but were stunned to find themselves down by two goals in the first eleven minutes. First it was Adrian Vazquez who conceded a penalty after tripping Mohammed Ghaderi in the box, which was converted by Sharifi and minutes later it was Sayyad who lobbed the ball past the onrushing keeper to double the lead. 

Mexico kept attacking but they simply couldn't get past the Iran keeper Ali Gholam Zadeh. Zadeh was standout in the goal denying Daniel Lopez, Diego Lainez and Luis Gamiz. But the Iran custodian couldn't stop De La Rosa’s right footer at the half hour mark that brought Mexico back into the game. 

It was never easy for Mexico to score past strong Iran side and coach Abbas Chamanian even made the matters worse for the central American side by getting on Amir Esmaeil Zadeh in the second half to add another man in their defence. Mexico did come close to scoring but only to see Jairo Torres’ free-kick hit the crossbar.

Mexico coach Mario Arteaga admitted his side committed mistakes that cost them the match and said, “We made two mistakes in the beginning of the match and that cost us. It was too difficult for us to make a comeback. We played well but were unable to score goals,”

While Goa surely witnessed one of the best performance they ever watched, Mexico coach Mario Arteaga wasn't happy with the results, “It was our worst match in the tournament. Now we are out and that is what matters. We tried to play nice football but we couldn’t win. It’s knock out tournament, we lost and we are out. We are disappointed that we lost,” exclaimed Mario.

Iran weren't the best side on Tuesday despite having the final results in their favour and coach Abbas Chamanian agreed to his sides performance. 

“Yesterday I said that we have a tough match today. We predicted that this match would be tough. It’s our toughest match in the world cup till now. We started the game very well and scored two goals and after that we had more opportunities to score more but we conceded a goal,” explained Abbas Chamanian while addressing the press during the post match conference at the Nehru Stadium.

Mali cruised to a 5-1 victory over Iraq in the Round of 16 at the FIFA U-17 World Cup India 2017. With the win, the Chile 2015 runners-up will meet African opposition in the form of either Ghana or Niger in the quarter-finals in Guwahati on Saturday.

It was Les Aiglonnets that dominated the first half and deservedly took the lead through Hadji Drame on 25 minutes. Good work by Salam Jiddou on the left allowed the unmarked Drame to score the 2,000th goal in tournament history.