In the early morning of January 15, Beijing time, in the first round of the group stage of the Asian Cup, the Iranian men's football team played against the Palestinian men's football team. In the end, Iran beat Palestine 4-1 to get off to an easy start, and on the same match day, Japan and the United Arab Emirates both gave their opponents heavy defeats and won their first victory.
As one of the traditional powerhouses in Asia, Iran has won the Asian Cup three times, ranking second in history, but the last time they won the cup was back in 1976, and the results have generally been poor in recent years. Iran are the third favourites to win the tournament behind Japan and South Korea, and the team must play every game well if they are to achieve their goal of reaching the final.
In this tournament, Iran and the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, and Hong Kong, China are in Group C, and the first match against Palestine is the first time that the two teams have met in the Asian Cup.
In the latest edition of the FIFA rankings, Iran is ranked 21st and Palestine is ranked 99th.
The match began to be one-sided, with Iran comfortably beating Palestine.
In just two minutes, Ansarifad scored a lightning goal to help Iran get off to a dream start 1-0, followed by a goal in the 12th minute, Khalizadeh scored to help Iran score 2-0, and in the 38th minute, Iran relied on Gaedi's goal to easily extend the score 3-0.
Faced with a big score behind, Palestine did not pull one back until stoppage time in the first half, but in the 55th minute of the second half, Azmoun's goal directly extinguished Palestine's hope of a comeback, and finally Iran won a big 4-1 victory, beating the United Arab Emirates to top the group.
In the two matches that ended earlier, the Japanese men's football team defeated the Vietnamese men's football team 4-2, and the United Arab Emirates men's football team defeated the Hong Kong men's football team 3-1.
As the number one favorite to win the championship, Japan sent a semi-main starting lineup, but it almost overturned in the gutter, and Vietnam scored two goals in a row to complete the overtake when leading by one goal, and the scene was once in a desperate situation. After that, Japan relied on the advantage of strong strength to score three goals in a row, and finally completed a 4-2 comeback, winning 11 consecutive victories in all competitions, scoring a total of 49 goals, setting a new record in team history.
In another game, Hong Kong, China, which returned to the Asian Cup after 56 years, played the first match against the second-rate Asian powerhouse United Arab Emirates, and in the end Hong Kong, China still fell behind, and was awarded 2 penalties at the whole time, and the goal was blown invalid at the last moment, losing the game with a score of 1-3, and continuing to winless in the Asian Cup, with a record of 3 draws and 8 losses.
However, Hong Kong, China still set a historical record by scoring in the Asian Cup for the first time in 56 years.