(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Iran claimed their first ever win at the global stage at handball when they edged out Chile in a close contest of the President's Cup yesterday.
The first President's Cup clash between Chile and Iran at Duhail Sports Hall started with the Iranians scoring the opener in the first minute. The Chileans replied almost immediately (1:1 after 1:20).
The Chileans took the lead and started to build up steadily on their advantage, making it 8:4 after 12 minutes.
Salinas was particularly active for Chile at this stage scoring the majority of Chilean goals.
Closer to the middle of the first period the Iranians got their act together and started to catch up with the Chileans eventually leveling up the score (8:8 after 15 minutes). The Iranians edged ahead after 12:11 after the 22nd minute).
From there onwards it was all about Iran capitalising on their newly found thirst for goals. The roles were quickly swapped. Now the Chileans were chasing the runaway Iranian advantage.
Despite all the Chilean efforts the Iranians held on to their lead come half-time. The half-time score read Iran 19 Chile 18.
In the second half the Chileans looked very determined to do something to change the situation. Yet the Iranians clearly had their own agenda and picked up from where they left off (26:22 for Iran after 44 minutes).
The Iranian team came across more effective in terms of their scoring abilities and slightly better organised in defence too, keeping their lead at 31:29 with only 5 minutes left on the clock.
While Salinas was still doing a bulk of the Chilean sharp shooting, the overall majority of the Iranian team were on the score sheet.
By the time there were 3 minutes to go the Iranian advantage was reduced to just 2 goals (32:30). In the last minute Iran's Allahkaram Esteki saw a red card.
Yet the Iran team stood their ground and were the winners in the end holding onto their one-goal win (32:31). Salinas was Chile's top scorer with 18 goals and Kiani, Allahkaram Esteki and Mousavi were the joint top scorers for Iran with 5 goals each.
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