Iran, a team that brings together a star-studded lineup of European soccer giants, suffered an unexpected loss in the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup on Wednesday (7), going down 2-3 to hosts Qatar. After the match, head coach Ghalinei apologized to the nation and promised to shoulder full responsibility for the team's exit, while pinning hopes on injecting fresh blood into the squad ahead of the next World Cup.
In the post-match press conference, Galinei first apologized to the fans, saying: I would like to apologize to the Iranian people for not being able to bring you the joy of victory today and thank all the players for their efforts. Although we showed our best performance so far in this tournament in the second half, we missed too many chances. That's the way it is in soccer, if you don't take your chances, you will be punished. Galinei also mentioned that traditional powerhouses such as Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Japan and Australia are out of the tournament and he believes that Iran has delivered a satisfactory performance on the technical level. However, he described it as one of the most painful days of his life and emphasized that he would take the responsibility for the exit: the blame for the current exit does not lie with the players or the federation, I will take full responsibility for it all.
The Iranian team is regarded as one of the favorites to win the tournament, with popular players such as Tanimi and Asmund in the team, who are regarded as Iran's new golden generation. Unfortunately, the Persian army this time or with the championship. As one of the teams with the highest average age of players in this final week, there are only four people in the Iranian team who are younger than 26 years old. Before the match, Galinei also admitted that this competition may be the last performance of some veterans in the national team.
