Palestine, Iran’s second rival before Asian Cup

2015 AFC Asian Cup

Iran’s national football team will take on Palestine in a warmup match ahead of the 2015 AFC Asian Cup which is due to be held in Australia from January 9 to 31, 2015.

The Iranian squad will start its training sessions as of Sunday (October 12) to get prepared for the 2015 Asian Cup. The Palestinian football team, which is to make its debut in the AFC Asian Cup in Australia, will face off against Iran on December 28, Ettela’at newspaper wrote in its 25,987^th issue on October 4.

The Palestinian team will have a stopover in Tehran for the warmup game before heading for the venue of the Cup.

Iran will play against Palestine and South Korea prior to the Asian tournament.

Iran and South Africa are likely to have a showdown prior to the main sporting event in Australia, a match which matters much for Iran.

The Iranian team’s technical staff is trying to arrange for yet another friendly before the 16th edition of the AFC Asian Cup. But it is still far from clear who will square off against Iran in its third preparation match.

Iran and Palestine have so far lined up against each other four times. Iran has won three of those matches, with the other ending in a draw.

The two last took the field in 2011 when Iran beat its rival 7-0. Palestine stood 102^nd in the FIFA rankings [in June 2014].

Words have spread that Diego Maradona, the former Argentine footballer, is a possible candidate to coach the Palestinian soccer team before the Asian Cup gets underway [in less than three months]. According to FIFA, the Palestine national football team has no head coach.