India go down to Iran 0-3 in AFC U-16 qualifiers

India went down 0-3 to Iran in their second match of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 qualifiers here on Friday.

India now stand on three points from two matches and will play Lebanon in their last Group League match on Sunday (September 20).

Goals from Mohammad Sharaifi (16th), Khodamoradi (43rd) and Ghaderi (57th) helped Iran earn full points.

In another match, Bahrain, who had lost 0-5 to India in the inaugural Group E match, beat Lebanon 2-1.

Congratulating Iran on the victory, Indian coach Nicolai Adam said, "We look forward to having rematch against Iran in the AFC U-16 Finals next year in India."

"With due respect to Iran, we played much stronger teams during the exposure teams in Germany and even won. But to win a game like this you need to play without making mistakes, which we were not able to," he said.

"The second goal at the stroke of interval killed us. The boys are young and we have time to prepare them for the bigger challenges that stay ahead. We could not reproduce our good performance which we put up against Bahrain. In my opinion, we lost because we were weak, and not because Iran were strong."

"It was not a good match for both sides as there were plenty of long balls played by both sides while Players from this age should play more on the pitch," he added.