Iraq defeat Iran to claim WAFF U-23 Championship on home soil

BAGHDAD: Hosts Iraq claimed the 2023 WAFF U-23 Championship by defeating Iran 5-4 in penalty shootout on Tuesday night — after the final had finished in a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes at Al-Madina Stadium in Baghdad.

Iran had taken the lead on 31 minutes through Hossein Goudarzi before Iraq’s Hussein Abdullah — who finished the tournament as top scorer with three goals — sent the home crowd into wild celebrations with an equalizer in first-half stoppage time.

The second half and extra time saw no addition to the score, before Iraq claimed the title after a tense shootout.

It was Iraq’s first title — in the competition’s fourth edition — and it comes a year after Saudi Arabia’s U-23 team had won the tournament.

The finalists had reached the final of the three-group, nine-team West Asia Football Federation tournament with narrow wins in Sunday’s last-four clashes.

In the first semifinal Iran and Jordan played to a 0-0 draw before the former won 4-3 in a penalty shootout in Baghdad.

The second semifinal saw the hosts defeat Gulf neighbors Oman 1-0 in front of a vociferous crowd of almost 30,000 at Al-Madina Stadium in the Iraqi capital. The decisive moment of the game came from an own goal by Oman’s Nasser Al-Rawahi in the 52nd minute.