Group D
Portugal 2, Iran 0
A sublime 63rd-minute long-range strike by midfielder Deco and an 80th minute penalty by Cristiano Ronaldo gave Portugal a hard-fought 2-0 win to send Iran packing from the World Cup yesterday.
The defeat means Iran have no points from their two Group D matches following their 3-1 defeat by Mexico in the opening match.
Portugal head the group on 6 points ahead of Mexico on 4.
From the start, Portugal found it tough to penetrate the packed defense of an Iranian team.
Deco, making his first World Cup outing, came close in the 12th minute when his left-footed strike produced a good one-handed save from Iranian goalkeeper Ebrahim Mirzapour.
Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari had fielded the Barcelona star, recovered from injury, along with Franciso Costinha and Maniche in place of Armando Petit, Tiago and Simao Sabrosa.
Manchester United winger Ronaldo fired just wide in the 35th minute and he and Luis Figo were always lively, but Iran held firm as it banked on counter-attacks.
Figo did connect 10 minutes later -- caught in the face by the high boot of a lunging Hossein Kaebi in what looked like a blatant challenge which was unspotted by French referee Eric Poulat.
The Portuguese striker was back in defense to make a crucial interception off Hashemian shortly after, and Portugal's attacking right back Miguel was unlucky after a barnstorming run, Mirzapour almost deflecting into his own net as the first half closed.
Ten minutes into the second half, Ronaldo forced another good Mirzapour save as he broke through on the left an hit a fierce left- foot shot. But just after the hour he had no chance against Deco.
Figo held the ball on the left, then cut in and put it at Deco's feet, and the Brazilian-born midfielder sweetly struck a screaming 25-yard shot into Mirzapour's top right-hand corner.
Moments after coming on as a substitute, Rasoul Khatibi had the Iranian fans believing a point was salvaged in the 68th minute as he stormed in -- only to hit wide.
Ricardo was again stretched in the 78th minute off Hashemian -- but Iran's demise was sealed moments later when captain Yahya Golmohammadi brought Figo down just inside the penalty area.
Ronaldo sent Mirzapour the wrong way with the spot kick -- and the Portuguese relief in wrapping up the victory was palpable.
Full report in tomorrow's edition of the Taipei Times.
ANFIELD BLUES: Kylian Mbappe arrived at Anfield on a run of 21 goals in 17 games, but he managed just three attempts in the match, none of them hitting the target Kylian Mbappe has been nearly unstoppable this season, but he hit a roadblock in their UEFA Champions League match at Anfield on Tuesday. For the second year running, the Real Madrid forward had a night to forget at Merseyside as Liverpool won 1-0. Mbappe looked a shadow of the player who has been tearing defenses apart all season. “We were lacking that threat in the final third,” said Madrid coach Xabi Alonso, without naming Mbappe individually. The FIFA World Cup winner for France rarely looked capable of finding a breakthrough against a Liverpool team who have been so defensively fragile for much of the
LOCAL SUCCESS: In the doubles, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia defeated Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini in straight sets Elena Rybakina on Monday punched her ticket to the WTA Finals last four with an impressive 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 victory over second seed Iga Swiatek in round-robin play in Riyadh. After cruising past Amanda Anisimova in her opener on Saturday, Rybakina claimed her second win of the week to guarantee herself top spot in the Serena Williams Group. Anisimova on Monday rallied back from a set and a break down to triumph 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in her all-American battle with seventh seed Madison Keys, who has been eliminated from the competition. “Madi was playing so well, it was quite a battle out there,”
For almost 30 minutes, Vitomir Maricic did not take a breath. Face down in a pool, surrounded by anxious onlookers, the Croatian freediver fought spasming pain to redefine what doctors thought was possible. When he finally surfaced, he had smashed the previous Guinness World Record for the longest breath-hold underwater by nearly five minutes. However, even with the help of pure oxygen before the attempt, it had pushed him to the limit. “Everything was difficult, just overwhelming,” Maricic, 40, told reporters, reflecting on the record-breaking day on June 14. “When I dive, I completely disconnect from everything, as if I’m not even there.
An amateur soccer league organized by farmers, students and factory workers in rural China has unexpectedly drawn millions of fans and inspired big cities to form their own, raising hopes China can grow talent from the ground up and finally become a global force. The nation of 1.4 billion people has about 200 million soccer fans, more than any other country, but it has failed to build world-class teams, partly due to a top-down approach where clubs pick players from a very small pool of prescreened candidates. The professional game is marred by a history of fixed matches, corruption, and dismal performances,
RSS