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Iran started their campaign with a win and was the first Asian side to do so in the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2017. Today they once again became the first Asian side to confirm their place in the Round of 16. A big statement from the 2016 AFC finalists and runners-up.
"Its hard to find words, none of my players played to the best of their ability today. Iran played a very good game, they were very fast, My players were a bit scared and hence gave them too much respect',' said a naturally distraught Germany coach, Christan Wuck.
"It was a mix of different factors; Heat, Complacency and of course the Brilliancy of the Iran team,'' said Wuck whose team could not find the back of the net and in fact managed to get only four shots on goal in comparison to Iran's 12. He also added how difficult it would be for his team to pick themselves up from this defeat: ''I have told the players many times, during their careers, they will face setbacks but today is one of the toughest ever in their career so far.''
''We respected the German team and that was one of the key aspects of today's result, we did not underestimate them,'' said an overjoyed Iran head coach, Abbas Chamanian. ''Germany is always a tough opponent for any team in the world. Today we saw a brilliant team performance from a united team (Iran), We defended excellently and were great in attack. Our players play for each other,'' said coach Chamanian, stressing how today was proof of the united efforts and coherence in the Iran team.
''Our fundamental plan was to control Germany's attack and to keep possession. We knew and studied about the attacking abilities and formation of Germany. We also know that Germany has lapses in their defence,'' Chamanian showed the level of extensive research he did before going into this crunch fixture.
''We also had two very important training sessions before this game. One of them was focused solely on learning to control and stop the Germans in attack and the other training session was to utilize and capitalize on the weak points of the German defence'' Chamanian extremely happy that his players listened to his advice and incorporated the tactics which were practised into the game
Finally, when asked If Iran are now strong contenders to go the distance he replied: "Not yet! Germany was only the second obstacle in a big race. After the Costa Rica result, maybe then we can talk about reaching semis or finals, the most important stage in a World Cup is the playoffs but its important that we don't get ahead of ourselves right now.''
