By Rohith Nair
AL RAYYAN, Qatar (Reuters) – Iran beat Palestine 4-1 in their Asian Cup Group C opener on Sunday at the Education City Stadium where a show of solidarity by Iranian fans and players was quickly followed by a football masterclass from the three-times champions.
The Iranian fans gave the Palestinians a warm welcome and loudly cheered the squad before their national anthem was played. But once the game kicked off, Iran were ruthless in attack as they dominated the game and barely put a foot wrong.
Iran’s Saman Ghoddos created two goals inside 12 minutes for Karim Ansarifard and Shoja Khalilzadeh while Alireza Jahanbakhsh set up Mehdi Ghayedi for the third, but Tamer Seyam got one back for Palestine just before the break.
However, Sardar Azmoun made it 4-1 after the break to put the game out of reach and although the Palestinians managed to mount a couple of promising attacks, Iran held firm to go top of the group.
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Al Rayyan, Qatar; Editing by Toby Davis)
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