Doustimehr: Tactical changes key

Iran struggled to score in the first half before they opened the scoring after 72 minutes through Rayam Sadeghian while Kaveh Rezaei sealed the win with only seven minutes remaining.

"We met Bahrain in the qualifiers and we defeated them 7-0 in Tehran so they knew us well," said Doustimehr. "We knew that they would defend their area and play with defensive tactics."

"Bahrain played with five players at the back and after they were tired in the second half we changed our system to play on the flanks and that helped us to open the scoring.”

Doustimehr added that his team had a good game but refused to name a player who had the best performance.

"The defensive tactics of Bahrain made it hard for one player to shine and that's why all of our players had a good game and their performance was good," he added.

Bahrain coach Hosni Zouaoui conceded that the individual skills of the Iranian players made the difference.

"Iran are one of the best teams at such level and we have previously lost against them in the qualifiers," he said.

"We tried our best to stop them in the first half but the individual skills of their players gave them the win tonight.

"The main problem that we had tonight is that our midfielders and strikers didn't have a good game and that's why we couldn't create any good chances.

"We knew that Iran would attack right from the beginning and that's why we tried to force them to play long balls. We were successful in the first half but in the second they changed their system to 4-3-3."

"Our players couldn't adapt to the change that the Iranians made and they lost the balls easily which gave the Iranians more chances to attack.”