According to the Tasnim news agency, Iran’s national football team, which is one of the main chances of winning the 2023 Asian Nations Cup, has been grouped with the UAE, Palestine and Hong Kong in Group C.
The students of Amir Ghalenoui are the first-place winners of Group C of the competition, and if they finish the group stage with the first place, they will line up against the third team of one of the B, A or F groups in the round of 16 (game number 5 of this stage). In case of victory in this stage, the winner of the match between the leading team of group E and the second team of group D will be the opponent of Iranian Yoos (match no. 3 of the quarter finals).
South Korea is grouped with Malaysia, Jordan and Bahrain and does not seem to have a hard time to top Group E. On the other hand, Group D is one of the toughest groups in the cup and includes Japan, Iraq, Vietnam and Indonesia. If Japan wins the first place in this group, Iraq will have a better chance to win the second place than other teams.
In this way, if the predictions turn out to be correct, South Korea and Iraq will face each other in match number 6 of the round of 16, and the winner of this match will face Iran in the quarterfinals. Also, if Qatar becomes the leader of group A and overcomes one of the third-ranked teams of groups C, D or E, it will make its way to the quarterfinals. In the round of 16, the second teams of groups F and B will play against each other, which will probably be Oman or Uzbekistan.
If Oman (Branko Ivankovic’s team) passes Uzbekistan, they will probably face Qatar, in which case we can see Branko and Carlos Queiroz (Qatar’s head coach) face off in the quarterfinals. If the equations regarding Iran are settled according to the predictions and our country’s team goes to the semi-finals, then at this stage it will line up against the winner of the match between the national teams of Oman and Bronco.
According to Tasnim, the 18th edition of the Asian Nations Cup football tournament with the participation of 24 countries will be held in Qatar from January 22 to Bahman 21, 1402.