Iran U-17 soccer team beats India in Valentin Granatkin Memorial
Iran’s national under-17 football team, commonly known by the nickname Nojavanan, has defeated India in a classification match at the 2017 Granatkin Memorial International Youth Football Tournament in Russia.
The Iranian team, which had goalkeeper Mobin Ashayer, defenders Taha Shariati, Aref Mohammadalipour, Amir Hossein Esmaeilzadeh, Ahmad Reza Jalali, Ali Bagheri, midfielders Mohammad Sharifi and Mohammad Ghaderi in addition to forwards Mohammad Reza Ghobeishavi, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Younes Delfi in its array, overcame the Indian squad 1-0 in a game for the 13th to 16th place at the St. Petersburg Sports and Concert Complex on Tuesday afternoon.
Sharifi scored the only goal of the match in the 39th minute. Shariati was sent off the pitch in the 90th minute as well.
“Our teams met last year in the Asian Championship, and as for India, I guess it has progressed a lot since then. Today’s match was hard for us, as in some moments our opponents were playing better than us,” Iran under-17 football team’s head coach, Abbas Chamanyan, said after the match.
The Iranian side has been scheduled to face Latvia in the thirteenth to 14th place classification on Thursday afternoon.
The 2017 Granatkin Memorial International Youth Football Tournament kicked off in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on January 8 and will conclude on January 21.
Iran started the campaign with a 2-1 loss to Zenit Saint Petersburg. It was held to a 1-1 draw by Slovenia in the second encounter, before trouncing Moldova 5-0 in the last group stage match of the tournament.
The first edition of the Granatkin Memorial, which is an annual youth association football tournament in memory of the first FIFA Vice-President Valentin Granatkin, was held in 1981, and West Germany became the champion.
Soviet Union-1 finished as the runner-up and Spain landed in the third place.
Slovenia, Saint Petersburg and Russia claimed the top three spots of the previous edition.
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