Mehdi Taremi Looks for AFC Asian Cup Title

Iranian fans need no reminder of how long it has been since the country last claimed the AFC Asian Cup; since 1976 numerous teams have tried – and failed – to take the title to Tehran for a fourth time.

“Iran has one of the biggest chances to become the champions of Asia, but not everything in the tournament will go according to the plans we have,” he told the-AFC.com.

“During the tournament, we have seen some exciting things happen which have made the tournament more interesting.

“We started well in the tournament; in the first match against Palestine we scored four goals. In the second match against Hong Kong we didn’t show the quality that we have but we got the result that we wanted.”

“And in the third match against UAE we were perfect, we started the match very well. We could have scored five goals, but three of them were ruled out by VAR.

“In general, we had a very good performance in the group stage and we should continue this good performance into the knockout stage too.”

Next up for Team Melli is Syria in the Round of 16 on Wednesday while a clash with Japan awaits in the quarter-finals should both nations progress.

“At this moment we’re only thinking about Syria because in a tournament you can’t anticipate a lot,” he says. “We’re not sure who we will face in the quarterfinals, so we’re only focused on Syria.”