Iran Fails to Qualify for Women’s Olympic Qualifiers Round 3
Iran’s women’s football team lost to Chinese Taipei and failed to seal ticket to Round 3 of the AFC Women’s Olympic Football Tournament Qualifiers.
On Tuesday, Maryam Azmoun’s side lost to its rival 4-1 in Doha’s Grand Hamad Stadium.
Iran knew a win would give them a more than even chance of reaching the last eight, but, not for the first time in Doha, Chinese Taipei’s Michelle Pao played a starring role to help her side to victory.
She opened the scoring in the 12th minute.
Chen Yen-ping added a second just three minutes later, and the likelihood of an Iranian recovery looked paper-thin when Tseng Shu-o converted a penalty to make it 3-0 in the 36th minute.
Chinese Taipei’s fourth – which was Pao’s second for the match, third for the week and ninth in Tokyo 2020 qualifying – extended the lead in the 47th minute, before Iran captain Zahra Ghanbari pulled one back to provide the Iranian team with the slightest glimmer of hope 15 minutes later.
Iran lost to the Philippines 2-0 in its opening match in Group C and pummeled Palestine 9-0 in the second match.