Match Report
5 points and 2 places separated them: Iran 1st with 9, Syria 3rd with 4. Recent form told a different story for Syria: only 11th in the league over the last five rounds despite sitting 3rd. Scoring rates set the scale: Iran 2.33 scored and 0.67 conceded per game, Syria 0.33 and 0.33, with the league averaging 1.21.
Iran arrived on a run of five straight wins, having scored in 13 consecutive games. The five-game form split read 15/15 points for Iran against 6/15 for Syria.
The match was played at Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Stadium in Doha (capacity 12,000). With 100 matches recorded and 1.5 yellow cards per game, J. Kim was the man in the middle. On the scoreboard, Iran led 1-0 at the break; 1 second-half goal set the final 1-1.