Ghalehnoei’s Penalty Strategy Pays Off for Iran
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Amir Ghalehnoei pinpointed tactical substitutions as the key to Iran reaching the quarterfinals of the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 at the expense of Syria after their Round of 16 match went all the way to penalty shootout on Wednesday.
Mahdi Torabi was brought on in extra time as Ghalehnoei plotted for the shootout early on, with two other substitutes - Omid Ebrahimi and Karim Ansafarid - three of the five players who scored in the shootout as Iran emerged 5-3 winners after the match ended 1-1 after 120 minutes.
Having dominated for much of the match, a change in tactics was necessary after Taremi was shown a red card late in the second half after picking up two bookings.
“We made a substitution before the match went into penalties,” Ghalehnoei told the-afc.com. “We put Torabi in, who is a good penalty kicker.
“We know who our best kickers are and also we know that (Alireza) Beiranvand can help us because we trust him between the sticks.
“I think we could have scored five goals against Syria (earlier in the game), we had so many opportunities. I’m not really happy with the performance of 2-3 players but I’m very happy with the discipline we showed after we went one man down.
“Before we went down to 10 men, I would consider our performance to be one of the best we have produced in the competition,” he added.
