Suspension-depleted Iran held Japan to a scoreless draw which sent both sides into the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup tournament on July 28.

Defender Ebrahim Taghipour scored one goal for Iran in the 25th minute but was ruled offside. Japan's best chance came in the 44th minute when forward Takayuki Suzuki dodged two defenders with only the goalkeeper to beat, only to shoot high.

Iran, with their defenders Mohammad Nosrati, Ali Badavi and Rahman Rezaei sitting out the final group tie due to suspensions, stepped up attacks in the second half but was unable to crack Japan's solid defense.

They attempted long shots in the final 15 minutes but Japan's goalkeeper Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi was too good to beat. Their last chance came in the 43rd minute when defender Hossein Kaebi ran down the right flank to feed a well-placed cross to lumbering forward Ali Daei, but the target man awkwardly opened his legs to let the ball slip between.

Starting lineups:

Japan: 23 G Yoshikatsu Kawaguchi 3 D Makoto Tanaka 5 D Tsuneyasu Miyamoto (C) 14 D Alessandro Santos 21 D Akira Kaji 22 D Yuji Nakazawa 4 M Yasuhito Endo 10 M Shunsuke Nakamura 15 M Takashi Fukunishi 11 F Takayuki Suzuki 20 F Keiji Tamada

Iran: 1 G Ebrahim Mirzapour 4 D Yahya Golmohammadi 13 D Hossein Kaebi 15 D Ebrahim Taghipour 19 D Jalal Kameli 27 D Sattar Zare6 M Javad Nekounam 8 M Ali Karimi 26 M Sayyed Mohammad Alavi 2 F Mehdi Mahdavikia 10 F Ali Daei (C) Enditem

Source: Xinhua