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Iran wins final World Cup berth
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- Iran captured the last berth in soccer's World Cup finals, coming from a two-goal deficit to tie Australia 2-2 today.Khodadad Azizi, Asian soccer's player of ther year, scored the final goal in the 80th minute of the match.
The two teams had tied 1-1 last Saturday in Tehran, but Iran won the 32nd berth in soccer's championship tournament on away goals.
Australia was coasting into the finals at 2-0 after 75 minutes when Karim Bagheri exploited a defensive mix-up to score Iran's first goal.
Five minutes later, Azizi beat Aston Villa's Mark Bosnich one-on-one to score the tying goal that sent Iran to the World Cup next summer in France.
Harry Kewell and Aurelio Vidmar scored for Australia.
"The Iranian people may get help by this result as far as world peace is concerned," said coach Valdir Vierra, who praised God and his goalkeeper Ahmadreza Abedzadeh.
"People, when they are happy, don't think about fighting. I asked the boys to fight here so they don't have to fight at home.
"Today you have 70 million Iranians as happy as can be."
Vierra admitted Australia deserved to win the game and the home side started in a frenzy but missed five clear chances in the opening 10 minutes.
"We missed a hatful," said Australian coach Terry Venables. "I feel really, really low here at the moment."
NEXT ROUNDS: Round of 16 || Quarter-finals || Semi-finals
GROUP A: Brazil, Morocco, Norway, Scotland
GROUP B: Austria, Cameroon, Chile, Italy
GROUP C: Denmark, France, Saudi Arabia, South Africa
GROUP D: Bulgaria, Nigeria, Paraguay, Spain
GROUP E: Belgium, Holland, Mexico, South Korea
GROUP F: Germany, Iran, United States, Yugoslavia
GROUP G: Colombia, England, Romania, Tunisia
GROUP H: Argentina, Croatia, Jamaica, Japan