TEHRAN – Iran U19 football team became the champions of the second edition of the Central Asian Football Association’s (CAFA) on Thursday.

The Persians were held to a 1-1 draw by hosts Tajikistan and won the title with 10 points.

Tajikistan striker Rustam Soirov continued a fine tournament with a lovely opening goal in the first half, but the hosts suffered a setback when Maucher Safarov was sent off just before half-time.

Mehdi Rahimabadi equalized the match in the 80th minute and the Iranian team lifted the trophy.

Iran won two more award in the tournament.

Iran goalkeeper Amirhossein Nikpour was named the most valuable player of the second edition of the CAFA U19 Championship while Tajikistan’s Shahrom Samiev emerged as the top scorer. Iran also took home the fair play award.

Tajikistan came second with eight points and Uzbekistan finished in third place with five points.

Sirous Pourmousavi’s team had already defeated Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan in the tournament.

A total of five nations took part in a round-robin tournament that was held in Dushanbe from August 9 to August 15.

Uzbekistan won the first edition of the CAFA junior tournament having defeated Kyrgyz Republic 1-0 in the final held in Tashkent in 2016.

The CAFA championship acted as a prelude to the AFC U19 Championship 2020 Qualifiers which will begin in November 2019.