Qatar’s Mohammed Alaaddin Badr (right) and Turkey’s Omer Bayram vie for the ball during their International Friendly Tournament at Grand Hamad Stadium of Al Arabi Stadium, yesterday. RIGHT: Iran’s Saeid Lotfi (right) and Morocco’s Omar Ati Allah in action.PictureS by: Abdul Basit
Doha: Iran defeated Morocco 1-0 while hosts Qatar drew 1-1 with Turkey in the opening day matches of the 11th International Friendly Tournament at the Grand Hamad Stadium of Al Arabi Sports Club.
Payam Sadeghian scored the match winner for Iran in the 29th minute of the first half.
The lone goal of the match came through a penalty conversion.
The Moroccan team attacked back in the second half in an attempt to secure the equaliser, however, the Iranian defense stood up to the challenge .
Iran head coach Alireza Mansoriya was happy to start the Doha campaign on a winning note.
“This match was one of the strongest matches in this tournament. Iran and Morocco are the two strongest participating teams. Gaining these three points is a very positive start for the Iranian team, and we are now preparing for the next matches against Qatar and Turkey,” said Mansoriya.
In the second match, Qatar bounced back to draw with Turkey.
Turkey scored through the efforts of Atabey Cicek during the 77th minute, while Qatar bounced back to the equalise with five minutes to go for the final whistle through Almehdi Ali Mukhtar.
Qatar coach Marcel Van Buuren happy with the end result: “We are very happy with the way we played today; we had a very good performance and look forward to the next matches,” said Van Buuren.
His counterpart GokhanKeskin said: “I would like to congratulate Qatar, I’m not happy with the way we played, however, we expect to win the next match. Qatar team has played really well today and we did not expect this level of strong performance. Finally, we look forward to the next matches.”
The Peninsula
