Iran fans gather before the game
By Mark Szczuka, Prost Global Football Correspondent
Perhaps outside of the Korea Peninsula, the two deadliest local rivals on the planet met in Canberra on Friday 23 January 2015. The two nations fought a deadly war which took over half a million lives between September 1980 to August 1988.
That was all forgotten though as the two sides met in the quiet official capital of Australia which lies away from the normal tourist trail.
It was an amazing match between two local rivals thousands of miles away from home but still full of thousands of real Iranian and Iraqi fans along with some local Aussie soccer fans who thoroughly enjoyed such an entertaining spectacle.
The match finished 1-1 after 90 minutes Rubin Kazan’s Sardar Azmoun opened the scoring for Iran in the 24th minute, only to see the “Iraqi Cristiano Ronaldo” Ahmed Yasin equalise for Iraq in the 56th.
The scoreboard before the fatal penalty miss
Iran played the second half and extra time a man down after after left back Mehrdad Pouladi received a second yellow in the 43rd minute.
Despite the man disadvantage, Iran managed to get through both the second half and extra time during which both sides scored twice to leave the match 3-3. A penalty shoot out settled the match in Iraq’s favour by 7-6 in a match that saw 11 yellow cards including the two for Pouladi.
Iran managed by former Real Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz exited the tournament while Iraq, somewhat exhausted by their derby endeavours, lost 2-0 to South Korea three days later.
Here is a gallery of the day:
