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Afcasiancup - Iran coach Amir Ghalanoei
claimed that a misunderstanding between himself and the referee resulted in
his dismissal from the bench during his side’s 2-1 win over Uzbekistan in
the AFC Asian Cup on Wednesday.
Ghalanoei was sent to the stands during the closing stages of a tense
encounter for apparently throwing a water bottle in the direction of the
fourth official.
However, he later claimed at the post-match press conference that there had
simply been a misunderstanding between himself and the match officials.
“It was just something that happened in the game. At that time, I was very
angry with one of my players who had lost the ball easily and I shouted at
him,” said Ghalanoei, who became the second coach to be disciplined in the
tournament following the dismissal of Qatar coach Dzemaludin Musovic against
Japan on Monday.
“But the referee thought that I was complaining about him so that’s why he
sent me off.”
Despite his controversial dismissal, Ghalanoei was pleased to see the Group
C favourites start the tournament with a victory in a hard-fought encounter
against Rauf Inileyev’s side.
The Uzbeks took the lead in the first half through a Rahman Rezaei own goal
but second half strikes by Seyed Jalal Hosseini and Javad Kazemian helped
Iran to claim all three points.
“I thought that it was a good result that we started with, against tough
opponents that played very well,” added Ghalanoei.
“The Uzbekistan coach prepared his team very well and I think that we had a
very good match today.
“And I appreciate the job done by my players who did well in the second half
to follow my technical instructions when we changed our tactics.”
While Ghalanoei admitted that his side’s performance, particularly in the
first half, was below par, he remains confident that they can still go on to
lift their first AFC Asian Cup title since 1976.
“In football, there is no should or must, and we say that we must be
champions,” he said.
“Most of the results in this tournament so far have been very close and it
is not easy to predict what will happen.
“However, I promise that we will get better, match by match, in this
competition.”
The Iran coach also defended his underperforming stars, like Ali Karimi and
Mehdi Mahdavikia, who had far from impressive performances on Wednesday.
“Star players sometimes have good games and sometimes not so good games,
even big players like Ronaldinho at Barcelona,” added Ghalanoei.
“We cannot expect good performances by our players in every match but we
have a plan and we are working with a team of 16 players, not 11, who can
play in each game.”
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