Iranian players have big dreams, says striker Jahanbakhsh

Islamic Republic of Iran players are eager to thrive under the pressure of expectations following their winning start to the AFC Asian Cup Qatar 2023 Group C, according to striker Alireza Jahanbakhsh.
The Feyenoord forward set-up Mehdi Ghayedi for the third goal in an emphatic 4-1 victory for Team Melli over Palestine at Education City Stadium on Sunday. Goals from Karim Ansarifard, Shojae Khalilzadeh and Sardar Azmoun rounded off the scoring.
“We knew how important it is to start the tournament in the best way possible,” said Jahanbakhsh.
“We tried to start the game in a strong way and luckily we scored the first goal quite early and that helped us to get the confidence and push for more goals.
“Before the game, we said we are not going to underestimate any team. We knew Palestine have nothing to lose and they came to do their best and get some result, but the guys did a great job. We were a bit sloppy and could not avoid conceding the first goal against us, but still 4-1 is a good result to start the tournament.”
Iran could book their place in the knockout stage for the eighth consecutive time should they collect the three points again in their second game against Hong Kong, China at Khalifa International Stadium on Friday.
“I think Hong Kong will be sort of a similar challenge. They lost the first game, so they know how important it is to get back and to do their best to get a result for the second game. We try to go step by step and game by game. The second game is important to make sure we secure our place in the next round.
“We will have a good recovery; we will respect Hong Kong and we will do our best to get the result in the second match and ensure we make it to the second round.”
“It is a good sign to have pressure. When there is pressure on us, that means there are high expectations and there is quality in the team. “As a team, we are ready for this tournament but the most important thing is to go game by game and luckily we did well in the first step, but we want to have better performances in upcoming games because we know in latter stages the games will be more difficult and we have to respect all opponents and do our best to make our people happy.”
“We know Iranian people in Iran and all over the world expect us to do good things, we have big dreams and are going to make sure we work hard to achieve all our dreams.”
Jahanbakhsh had been part of the IR Iran team that reached the quarter-finals in Australia 2015 and the semi-finals in UAE 2019.