Iran Defeats Maldives in World Cup qualifiers

Iran\'s football squad beat Maldives 1-0 in the second round of the 2014 World Cup qualifiers on Thursday. The Iranian football team, three-time Asian Cup champion, entered the match on Thursday on the back of a 4-nil home win over the Indian Ocean island nation in the first leg in Tehran. The visitors were not at their best form during the return leg. The lone goal of the game came in the extra time of the first half and it was through Iran\'s Mohammad Reza Khalatbari. No goals went either ways from then onwards and that\'s how the Iranians advanced to the third round of the competition. Iran set a World Cup qualifying record when it beat the Maldives 17-nothing in 1997. However the last time the two nations met in April 2000, Iran won the Asian Cup qualifying game 3-0.