Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Yangon: Ahmed Al Sarori scored the only goal in Yemen's shock 1-0 victory over Iran that eliminated the four-time champions from the AFC U-19 Championship at the first hurdle, following the Group A meeting at Thuwunna Youth Training Centre Stadium on Saturday.
Despite having to go on the defensive for over 84 minutes after Al Sarori's sublime strike had given his side a stunning early lead in the match, Yemen were able to see out the tie to give themselves a golden chance at progression to the knockout stages.
The result, though, puts Iran out of the running for qualification from Group A, with only pride at stake in Monday's game against hosts Myanmar. While the fate of Yemen's competition is in their own hands, as they face Thailand at Wunna Theikdi Stadium in Nay Pyi Taw on Matchday Three.
"Our approach was to enter the match and win the three points that would keep us on track to qualify, a draw would have left us 50/50, but now we are 70 percent of the way there," said Yemen coach Ahmed Qasem.
"The players committed to the tactics, we scored early and defended our lead."
Unhappy with his team's complacency in their opening day defeat to Thailand, Iran coach Ali Doustimehr looked to shake up his team with four changes spread across the team's formation.
Yemen, meanwhile, made just the two changes, one of them being the crucial introduction of Ahmed Al Sarori to the line-up.
And in only the 6th minute of the game, Iran's defence left the forward in space at the top of the box, as the ball was played into his feet he took one touch to control the ball, cutting to his right before curling the ball around goalkeeper Mahdi Amini and into the far corner.
For the remainder of the first half, the Yemen defence looked vulnerable to crosses from the wings, but Iran's attackers could not capitalise, failing to hit the target on multiple occasions.
The second half brought more opportunities for Iran, the 64th minute saw Saeid Aghaei, Iran's dead ball specialist, strike an on-target free-kick from over 30 yards which saw Yaser Thawab unable to gather the ball cleanly, but somehow scoop the ball away from danger.
In the 77th minute, Iran once again took to the sidelines in search of a breakthrough with Amir Mazloum whipping in the ball for Ali Fathian to leap high and hit the target forcing a fine reaction save from Thawab.
As the game entered its final ten minutes, Iran took to a high tempo offensive in an attempt to salvage their continental campaign.
And the best of these opportunities was again delivered by Mazloum, looking to find Iran's Saeid Ezatolahi, who had now been moved up into the target zone to make the most of his height advantage, but ultimately the ball once again sailed wide of the far post.
Time added on was adjudged to be six minutes and Iran used this lifeline to continually pepper the Yemen box with crosses but their final efforts were all in vain as Yemen celebrated a famous victory.
"To focus on delivering crosses into the box was not our tactic from the start, but once we saw the whole Yemen team sat in defence, we had little choice," said Iran coach Doustimehr.
"I take full responsibility, I don't want to blame anyone else, I'm not satisfied with my management in these two games and I want to apologise for that."