|
|
| Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, November 16, 2001 |
Ireland Wins World Cup Berth Despite 1-0 loss to Iran |
|
Ireland captured its World Cup finals berth despite a 1-0 loss Thursday to Iran, advancing on a 2-1 aggregate in their second-leg playoff at Azadi Stadium.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
Ireland Wins World Cup Berth Despite 1-0 loss to Iran
Ireland captured its World Cup finals berth despite a 1-0 loss Thursday to Iran, advancing on a 2-1 aggregate in their second-leg playoff at Azadi Stadium.
It was the first time Ireland enter the World Cup finals since 1994. Iran's Yahya Golmohammadi scored on a close-in header off a free kick just over a minute into injury time after the two sides booked a scoreless 90 minutes.
While the Iranian team controlled most of the ball during the match, it was unable to create another "Melbourne Miracle," which refers to Iran's miraculous comeback in the 1998 World Cup qualifier playoff against Australia when they came from two goals down to even the match in the second leg in Melbourne to qualify on the away goal rule.
The Irish team was mostly on the defense after 30 minutes of the kickoff, but the players, mostly English Premiership footballers, managed to fend off rounds of attacks launched by the Iranian squad, cheered by some 95,000 spectators inside the Azadi Stadium.
Ireland is the 31st of 32 teams to qualify of next summer's South Korea-Japan World Cup. The final place will be decided in a two-legged playoff November 20 and 25 between Uruguay and Australia.
|
|
|
|
|