The Iranian women’s national soccer team is ready to beat Chinese Taipei to make their Olympic dreams come true, the national soccer coach Maryam Azmoun said on Sunday.
Iran will book a place in the final round of the 2020 Olympic qualifiers should they fend off their rivals in Doha’s Grand Hamad Stadium on Tuesday.
“Chinese Taipei are a good team and I think they deserved to defeat the Philippines 4-2. We had to beat the Philippines but failed to take advantage of our chances,” Azmoun was quoted as saying by the Tehran Times daily.
“Now, we are ready to make our dream come true. We want to book a place in the Olympic Games for the first-ever time. We have analyzed our opponent and hope to get a good result against them,” she added.
“Football has improved a lot in Asia and we have done well so far. The other Asian teams respect Iran as a powerful team and it is satisfying for us,” Azmoun said.
In the final round, the successful sides of Group A, B and C from the second round will join Australia, the DPR Korea, South Korea, China and Thailand in two groups of four, with the top two teams from each group advancing into the playoffs.
The two winners from the playoffs will then qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics along with hosts and reigning Asian champions Japan.