I’m in the dark about China, admits Karimi

ASIANCUP2004 - Iran’s quarter-final hat-trick hero Ali Karimi has admitted that he knows next to nothing about Tuesday’s semi-final opponents China.

“I don’t know much about China other than that they are a good team,” said the mercurial 26-year-old, whose 77th minute winner ended the Asian Cup interest of 2002 World Cup semi-finalists Korea Republic as the Iranians edged a 4-3 thriller.

“They are a very young team and completely different from the last time Iran played against them. I don’t recognise most of them, only the number 9 (Hao Haidong).

The last meeting between the two sides that the tournament’s joint-top scorer was referring to was the Persians’ 4-0 win in the Cup of Ancient Civilizations held in Tehran back in January 2001, a match that Karimi didn’t get the chance to shine in after picking up a hamstring injury.

Having become the first player at the Asian Cup 2004 to net a hat-trick, the laid-back Karimi is oozing an aura of confidence, but he knows that the match with the host nation will be the most difficult of Iran’s campaign so far.

“Our team can definitely make it to the final, but the match against China will be our hardest of the tournament. I think even if we get to the final it will be an easier match than this one.

“It’s going to be a tough match but we will be doing our best to reach the final. It doesn’t make any difference when we play China as it is our aim to win the championship, so we must beat whoever we play against.”

When pressed, Karimi added that his preference for the final would be 2002 World Cup qualifying foes Bahrain rather than defending Asian Cup champions Japan, who square off earlier in the evening in Jinan.

“If it was my decision I would probably prefer to meet Bahrain in the final,” said Karimi, who was part of Miroslav Blazevic’s squad that lost 3-1 in Manama in the final round of 2002 World Cup qualifying.

This surprising defeat, marred by what some considered to be the home side’s cynical time-wasting tactics, consigned Iran to a play-off against the UAE and allowed Bahrain’s Gulf neighbours Saudi Arabia to claim an automatic berth at Korea-Japan 2002. However, Karimi is not thinking about payback.

We haven’t played them for a long time and revenge, or a better word rematch, is at the back of my mind.”