Iran edges past Venezuela 1-0 in pre-FIFA World Cup friendly
Iran men's national football team, domestically known as Team Melli, has defeated Venezuela in a friendly fixture as part of preparations for the 2018 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup.
On Monday evening, Team Melli beat the Venezuela national football team 1-0 at t the end of a match staged at the empty Goffertstadion stadium in the central eastern Dutch city of Nijmegen.
Both teams observed a minute of silence in tribute to hundreds of lives lost in the magnitude-7.3 earthquake that struck the western part of Iran late on Sunday.
Iranian footballers opened the match with more whim and vigor, and dominated the fixture in the first quarter.
It was up until the 20th minute that Venezuelan soccer players moved forward and started to counter attack.
With five minutes to the end of the first period, Venezuela was awarded a direct free kick when Iran’s 21-year-old midfielder Saeed Ezatolahi Afagh committed a foul.
The South Americans could have grabbed the opener as one of them directed the ball at Iranian keeper Alireza Beiranvand and he could not well parry his shot. Iranian defender Seyyed Jalal Hosseini, however, jumped up and hit the ball with the head at the goal mouth.
Iran and Venezuela footballers failed to score a goal later on, and went into the cloakrooms tied at nil.
After the interval, the Persians built up more pressure on their opponents' goalpost.
Iranian professional footballer Reza Ghoochannejhad Nournia, who plays for Dutch football club Heerenveen, put the ball in the back of the net in the 55th minute. But, the goal was ruled out for offside.
Alireza Jahanbakhsh finally found the back of the net in the 57th minute, and scored on a counter attack.
Venezuela had a few chances to equalize, but Iran’s goalie blocked the attempts.
The Iran national football team defeated Uzbekistan 2-0 at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium on June 12, and became the first Asian team - and the third squad after Brazil and hosts Russia - to secure its place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Sardar Azmoun opened the scoring for the host team in the 23rd minute.
Mehdi Taremi found the back of the net from inside the area in the 88th minute, and finished off the White Wolves.
This is the second time in a row that Team Melli has won the ticket for the FIFA World Cup finals under the tutelage of its 64-year-old Portuguese head coach Carlos Queiroz.
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