The Tasnim news agency quoted Ihab Abu Jazar, the coach of the Palestinian football team, who said that the team played with its third players against Iran and lost 2-0: "The absence of several players played an important role in this result. We used players who were our third choice, not even our second choice. ".
"Most of these players were playing together for the first time, which is a challenge in itself," he said. "We didn't even have a full training session in Basra either. These are not excuses, I'm just pointing out the factors that contributed to this result. ".
The Palestinian coach also said, "This is football. This was the first loss of the Palestinian national team in 2026, against a strong team like Iran. It's not like we lost to a weak team in Asia. We lost to the second ranked team in Asia. The events of the game caused this loss. ".
He saw the removal of Amid Sofata in the second half as one of the reasons for the loss and said: "In football there are wins, losses and draws. Before the red card, however, the game went a certain way. The course of the game changed completely after that.