In the third match of the 2019 Asian Cup 1/8 round, Oman failed to surprise the top candidate for the championship, Iran. With more than half of the squad being defensive players returning from the 2018 World Cup, the Iranian stars turned the match against Oman into their own stage.
The surprise almost came in the first minutes when Oman's Al Ghassani striker was knocked down by Iran's defender Hossein in the penalty area and the referee immediately pointed to the penalty minute. But unfortunately, captain Ahmed Kano's penalty kick missed goalkeeper Beiranvand. It must also be said that this was an extremely excellent save by the goalkeeper who discouraged the strikers of Portugal and Spain at the 2018 World Cup.
After the humiliating situation, Iran was like a tiger that had just woke up. They controlled the ball up to 59% with a total of 12 shots. Iran played more confidently. They applied continuous pressure and broke the deadlock after 32 minutes of play. Taking advantage of Al-Braiki's mistake, striker Jahanbakhsh escaped very quickly before defeating goalkeeper Al Rashidi in a one-on-one situation.
A few minutes later, captain Ashkan Dejagah settled the penalty spot in the 41st minute because in the remaining time, neither Iran nor Oman scored any more goals. If they had better taken advantage of the opportunities in the second half, perhaps Iran could have scored more goals. With a convincing 2-0 victory, Iran won a ticket to continue to the 2019 ASIAN Cup. In the quarter-finals, they will face China, who had previously won 2-1 against Thailand.
