Iran's head coach, Amir Ghalehnoei, believes that Iran's victory against Japan in the quarterfinals of the AFC Asian Cup will be a turning point for Iranian football. Although Japan had a strong start, they lost 1-2 to Iran after Mohammad Mohebi and Alireza Jahanbakhsh scored two second-half goals. The match was a tough one for Iran and they had less recovery time than Japan for the game against Japan. Ghalehnoei said that 80 million people are following the national team, and the players know that they will give everything for the national team. The match between Japan and Iran should have been the final, according to Ghalenoei, but instead, they played each other in the quarterfinals.