voldemort

The only time Iraq appeared in the World Cup finals was at Mexico in 1986. Fast forward 22 years on, the Asian Cup winners will be hoping to progress from their ‘Group of Death’. The Iraqis are drawn together with Australia, Qatar and China.
As they prepare to take on China at Al Ahli Stadium in the UAE, Iraq want to give China an inauspicious start to the Lunar New Year by clinching victory. The two sides have faced each other recently. Their last encounter was during the qualifiers for the 2007 Asian Cup and the Iraqis claimed a 2-1 win over the Chinese.
And, Iraq assistant coach Rahim Hamid believes China can be defeated easily.
He said: "All the pundits have described our group as the 'Group of Death' because all the teams are big names in Asian football. China are not even hard to beat at all.
"We are optimistic we can do it because we beat Australia 3-1 in the Asian Cup last year and we also defeated Qatar 1-0 in the Gulf Cup."
Meanwhile, China coach Vladimir Petrovic is wary of Iraq after witnessing them defeat the UAE in a warm-up match last week.
"After watching the friendly between Iraq and UAE, I can say that Iraq are a team with outstanding individual players who are very threatening," said the Serbian.
"Although it was just a friendly and Iraq may not have put 100% into it, I will have to get my players to try to control the midfield. The winner will be the side who are successful in the middle. It will be a tough match and we have to be prepared to fight until the final whistle."




source:goal.com