Category: News

Team Melli stuns Wales with two late goals.

Rozbeh Cheshmi and Ramin Rezaeian scored two late goals against Wales in Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al-Rayyan, Doha to ensure Team Melli grab all three points in an exciting and dynamic match.

The 2-0 win puts Iran in the second position in Group B on goal difference behind group leader England. The USA is third and will be meeting the leaders later this evening.

Team Melli had five changes from the previous match with Azmoun making the starting lineup and Jahanbakhsh benched. Gholizadeh also made the start-up. The match was balanced in the early stages but slowly Team Melli managed to take a grip on the match.  However, efforts by Azmoun and Taremi did not yield any results. Ali Gholizadeh scored a goal from a nice assist by Azmoun but he was deemed offside.

The first half ended goalless

In the second half, Iran was much the better team and threatened Wales consistently. The poor finishing and the slow transition from defense to attack marred Team Melli’s performance. Azmoun shot against the post and seconds later Gholizadeh curled a beauty into the far corner of Hennessy but that ball also hit the upright.

In the dying minutes of the match, Taremi was released from a long ball. He beat the offside trap and was one-to-one with Hennessey, The Welsh keeper came all the way outside the box to cut the ball. He fouled Taremi in the process and also denied him a goal-scoring opportunity, a clear red card case. However,  to the shock of the Iranians, the referee opted for a yellow card to the Welsh Keeper. Moments later, the referee was invited to look at the situation by VAR referees. The review resulted in the rightful decision of sending Henessy off.

Dying minutes of the added time. Rozbeh Cheshnmo lathed at a loose ball from outside the box to score from a low powerful shot right into the corner of Welsh goal. 1-0 to Iran. The Welsh then went on an all-out attack leaving their backlight. two minutes later, a counterattack and a beautiful pass by Taremi ended up with Rezaeian chipping the Welsh keeper to make it 20-0.

Iran deserved this valuable win against the 10-man Wales and needs a similar result to assure qualification to the next round.

Azmoun in the starting lineup against Wales

Queiroz realized his blunder against England and opted to change the shape of the team for the match against Wales in Group B of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. In defense, the same poor lineup is maintained though, except for the right back where Ramin Rezaeian is replacing Moharrami. In the midfield, Karimi and Cheshmi are out, replaced by Gholizadeh and Ezatollahi. The biggest surprise was the exclusion of Alireza Jaganbakhsh who had a bad day against England, with Sardar Azmoun.

The line-up is as follows:

24 Hossein Hosseini
8 Morteza Pouraliganji
23 Ramin Rezaeian
19 Majid Hosseini
5 Milad Mohammadi
3 Ehsan Hajisafi
21 Ahmad Noorollahi
6 Saeid Ezatolahi
17 Ali Gholizadeh
9 Mehdi Taremi
20 Sardar Azmoun

Iran vs. Wales: 5 talking points

  1. Players to observe in the Welsh Team

Wales has two household names on the team. Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey. Fortunately for Team Melli, they are in the twilight of their careers, but still players to be reckoned with nonetheless. There is also another veteran in Joe Allen. The Swansea midfielder is fit enough to play some part after missing their World Cup opener.

The 72-times capped Allen, so fundamental to the way Wales operate, has not played since damaging a hamstring on September 17. But Allen has stepped up his fitness push over the past few days and joined the main group after spending the first few days in Qatar training on his own. It is still not clear if he will be recalled by Coach Page.

At 6ft 5ins Kieffer Moore is difficult to miss and the absence of his name from the Wales teamsheet for the opening game against the Americans was a shock for many Welsh fans.

Page realized the error of his ways after a futile first 45 minutes and Moore changed Wales’ fortunes after being sent on at half-time, holding the ball up to bring Gareth Bale and Aaron Ramsey into play. It is possible that Moore will be in the starting line-up on Friday, especially after England showed in their handsome opening 6-2 win that Iran could be defensively fragile in the air. The coaches of Iran need to pay particular attention to their players.

2. Environmental Condition

Wales had the luxury of a 10 pm kick-off local time against the United States and playing in cooler conditions. But the Iran game is first up on Friday, with the action kicking off at 1 pm. The weather in Doha is still warm. The temperature is expected to be around 29 degrees Celsius at kick-off, so will that prove an advantage for Iran players more used to hot conditions?

3. The Fans Factor

The Iranian fans in Doha could very easily outnumber the Welsh by a large margin in and out of the stadium. Team Melli fans could always depend on the vociferous Iranians and the passionate fans to give the team a morale boost during major championships. This time, however, and due to the political situation back in Iran, a split and a crack has developed within the ranks, with some fans accusing this very team of representing the suppressive regime of the Mullahs. The arrogant and patronizing Carlos Queiroz has worsened the situation by bad-mouthing the Iranian fans who showed their anger at the team after the England defeat. It does not sit well with those fans and could be of a negative impact.

It is not known if this will be a factor, but be rest assured that a good Team Melli performance and better still an early goal will ignite the passion and pump up the Iranian fans, even those who have reservations about the team and players.

4. Queiroz’s Game plan

One does not need to be a genius to figure out that the lineup and game plan against England was a pretty pathetic failure. Even a dogmatic person such as the Portuguese coach knows that despite the fact that he blames the earth and sky for his now repetitious failures. The problem is that Queiroz is an aging coach and it is difficult to teach an old dog new tricks. If he deviates from his defensive mode, he might feel discomfort and not be at ease. Yet, he has to change to survive this. His contract is short term and a failure in this World Cup means he will be looking for his third job in as many years. Changes in personnel and game plan are a must for Iran.

5. Team Melli player’s morale.

This one is the most difficult to predict. No one really knows what the status of the players is in the camp especially after the whole team displayed unity in sympathy for the public cause and sided with the people of Iran by not singing the national anthem. For the sake of the team and the nation, one hopes that this time, the players unite and show their worth in front of the world against a team that they can beat under normal circumstances. The onus is on the players, provided the coach, plays his cards right.

Tehran clash

Azadi Stadium Tehran, Iran
Iran and Wales played a 1978 friendly at  the Aryamehr Stadium (Andrew Budd/PA)

Whereas England had never played Iran until Monday’s World Cup meeting, Wales has previously met the three-time Asian Cup winners. A Tehran friendly was arranged in April 1978 as the Liverpool-supporting son of the Shah of Iran wanted to invite a British side to play in the country.

Wales won the game 1-0 with Cardiff’s Phil Dwyer scoring the only goal in front of a 50,000 crowd.

Iran vs Wales: Match preview

Wales and Iran will both be going in search of their first wins of the 2022 World Cup when they face off at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on Friday. After the trouncing by England, Team Melli is looking for a strong comeback to keep their qualifying hope alive. Team Melli will be without their main goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand who has a broken nose and will sit it out for the rest of the tournament. Amir Abedzadeh is making a strong claim for a starting place ahead of Hossein Hosseini who conceded six goals against England.

Iran will have to have a major facelift if they are going to beat Wales, as the lineup against England was the catalyst in this big defeat. Saman Ghoddos was sorely missed in the middle of the field so was Kanani to lead the defense.  As for the Forwards, it is likely that Queiroz, who is an aficionado of parking the bus and under immense public pressure, will start with both Azmoun and Taremi up front. The midfield in particular is in a dire need of a leader and orchestrator. Jahanbakhsh needs to stand up and be counted. Says applies to Nourollahi and Eztollahi.

Rob Page‘s Wales side rescued a point against the USA in their opening fixture, while Iran was on the end of a 6-2 pummelling at the hands of England as their World Cup campaign began in the worst possible fashion.

Hopes will be higher of picking up points against Wales, although both sides may be going into the game uncertain of what to expect with the two having only previously met on one occasion.

That contest came all the way back in April 1978 too, when former Cardiff City defender Phil Dwyer scored the only goal of the game on his debut in a friendly in Tehran’s Arayamehr Stadium.

It was not an ideal warm-up for the 1978 World Cup for Iran, who went on to finish bottom of their group behind Peru, Netherlands and Scotland – against whom they picked up their only point – in Argentina.

WALES VS. IRAN HEAD-TO-HEAD RECORD

Wales wins: 1
Iran wins: 0
Draws: 0
Wales goals: 1
Iran goals: 0

MATCH HISTORY

April 18, 1978: Iran 0-1 Wales (International friendly)

Queiroz disdainful interference in domestic politics and his insults.

Carlos Queiroz will use any trick up his sleeves to water down his shameful performance against England. Now he is deflecting the loss on the fans in the stadium and congratulating them for doing their job well. He has also found a useful tool for himself. Politics.

In the days that the country is suffering from hardship, agony, and repression, the so-called Hojat-o- Islam Haj Carlos Queiroz is poking his nose into affairs that has nothing to do with him except to side with his paymasters!  In a blatant interference in politics, and instead of focusing on his own shortfalls, his erroneous archaic tactics, his players’ mistakes, and generally the physical shape and emotional condition of his players, he is sending condemning those Iranians who are critical of low standard, his team low esteem, and the regime.

 On the sidelines of the team’s training in Doha today, Carlos Queiroz commented on the prevailing conditions of the squad before the match against Wales on Friday and the events of the England match. The Portuguese coach, who got the job on a plate of gold, after his predecessor, Dragan Skocic, did all the hard work, referred to the England match “I thank the media for their support. We never want to be on the pitch but not be able to win for the fans. We will learn from the result. We lost against a team that is probably one of the title contenders, and we should be ourselves with proper behavior and mental peace on the field (…). As I said before and in the message I sent, our players in the national team are not our enemies. I congratulate those who want to turn the players into enemies of the country because they did their job right. But I’m sure most people know that these players made people happy and proud for many years.”

Queiroz added: “I want to fight against the idea that the national team players are our enemies. Our enemies are those who tried to disrupt our focus.  Those who think that playing in the World Cup against English or Portuguese teams and others is like playing on PlayStation are very wrong. This is a great responsibility on our shoulders. Congratulations to the people who did it. They should be happy because of what they have done. Carlos Queiroz criticized the media in this interview and stated that this media has reached the composition of the national team on the morning of the game against England! He said: You are a great hero and this showed that there is someone in my team who will inform you!

Don’t hold your horses waiting for the local totally controlled government-owned and-run media to criticize the Portuguese for his rude insult to the Iranian fans. However, this man needed to be confronted with facts.

The first interesting note here is the sarcastic congratulatory note to the fans, who in case this Portuguese does not know, spend their hard-earned money to travel from across the world as far as Australia and America to see their beloved Team Melli. It is not like him who is being paid to do a job, these fans spend their own money. Wise up, Carlos! It is within their full right to criticize. They have not come to the stadium to watch losers, Team Melli fans maintain a high standard and like to see winners. But even if the team loses, they have been supportive, it is difficult to swallow this shameful, embarrassing drubbing. Lucky for Queiroz that he is coaching in Iran, if he was a coach of Saudi Arabia or any other Persian Gulf country, he would have been booted out before even leaving the stadium for shaming the country’s name.

The second issue that Queiroz needs to address in his incoherent statement is that someone actually did a good job, his words not ours, and succeeded, though he himself failed and failed miserably. Perhaps, Queiroz needs to go back to these fans and learn lessons in success and how to achieve it.

It is so sad that the affairs of Team Melli have reached such a status, particularly with the presence of the ever-divisive Portuguese man who should have never been anywhere close to this post. Even if he wins against the next two opponents, which Team Melli deserves, it will never be thanks to him but to the efforts of the coaching staff and crew that have accompanied Team Melli since 2019 in the qualifiers namely Dragan Skocic and the likes of Karim Bagheri.

Team Melli vs England: Players and Coach ratings

Team Melli’s Team Rating in the match against England ended a 6-2 for Iran

Man of the Match for Iran: MEHDI TAREMI

Iran (5-4-1)

Ali Beiranvand (GK) Ludicrous that he was allowed to continue after a nasty head injury. Eventually carried out on a stretcher after 19 minutes.  He was confident while on the pitch and had no real threat to deal with. 6

Sadegh Moharrami (RB) was Overwhelmed by England’s raids down his flank. He could not contain Shaw. Not one of his good days. 5

Morteza Pouraliganji (CB) Formerly a defensive midfielder, the converted center-back was turned by Kane for England’s third. He partnered Hosseini and the duo just fell apart. Booked. 4

Roozbeh Cheshmi (CB) was One of the most unexpected names on the sheet when the starting lineups were announced. Away from Team Melli for a long time only recently recalled by Queiroz. Poor showing and lack of agility were evident. Overpowered by Maguire when the defender nodded down for Saka to score. Substituted at half-time. 3.5

Majid Hosseini (CB) was Not the most confident of defenders and his partnership with Pouraliganji proved to be fateful. He was beaten in the air when Bellingham scored the opener. He struggled with England’s attack. 3.5

Milad Mohammadi (LB) Had the unenviable task of trying to keep up with Saka. The youngster tormented him. He did however manage a few runs on the wing but to no avail. 4

Alireza Jahanbakhsh (RW)  One performance to forget from a player that has done so well in the qualifiers. His time warming the bench with his club was telling as he seemed to be out of match practice. He squandered a glorious chance to score but instead ballooned the ball while no English defender was close to him. Booked and replaced at half-time. 4

Ali Karimi (CM) He was utterly lost and out of place in this Team Melli lineup. Karimi was overwhelmed by England’s midfield trio and could not match their skills.  3

Ahmad Noorollahi (CM)  Another player who was simply overwhelmed by the English midfield players. No support at all for4 Taremi . Really struggled while on the pitch as he saw little of the ball. 3.5

Ehsan Haji Safi (LW) The captain spent much of his time tracking back to mark Saka. It made little difference. 5

Mehdi Taremi (CF) With Carlos Queiroz’s game plan, Taremi was isolated and hardly received any service, but he scored a marvelous goal beating both Maguire and Stones to shoot past hapless Pickford. Iran’s best player scored both goals despite the lack of service.  8

Substitutes

Hossein Hosseini (for Beiranvand, 19) was an early goalkeeper replacement and could not be faulted for any of the goals. 5;

Ali Gholizadeh (for Jahanbakhsh, h-t) Managed a mini-revival when he was introduced. Played a clever pass for Taremi’s first goal. 6.5;

Hossein Kanaani (for Cheshmi, h-t) A player who should have started the game, but the coach thought otherwise. In the circumstances, he did well in the second half. 6;

Saeid Ezatolahi (for Karimi, h-t) His contribution was minimal as like his other midfield teammates he looked disorientated and out of place 4.5;

Mehdi Torabi: (for Milad Mohammadi 63′) Made little impact in the minutes he was on the pitch 4.5;

 Sardar Azmoun (for Noorollahi, 77) Despite the long-time injury, he was mobile and dynamic for the minutes he played. Could have very well scored but for Pickford’s brilliant save 6.5

 

COACH

Carlos Queiroz: His players’ selection and insistence on parking the bus tactics ended in a disaster this time. The substitutions he made in the second half did improve the team somehow, but it was too little too late. Not a coach who admits his faults or mistakes in public, but deep down he is experienced and senior enough to know that he really made some bad choices against England. 4

‘Really good player’: Rio Ferdinand raves about ‘ridiculous’ striker Arsenal reportedly want to sign

Rio Ferdinand has raved about FC Porto striker Mehdi Taremi on BBC today – a striker Arsenal reportedly wants to sign.

According to CBS Sport, Arsenal could’ve signed Taremi back in January as the striker was offered to the Gunners on a loan deal. Mikel Arteta looked to be in desperate need of attacking reinforcements at the start of this year, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out of favor before he made the switch to Barcelona. Arteta’s men were left with just Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah for the second half of the campaign.

But A Bola – via Sport Witness – claimed last month that Arsenal are still one of the clubs that could be chasing Taremi’s signature in January. The 30-year-old bagged two goals against England today though as his national side Iran were thrashed 6-2 in their opener at the World Cup. And before the game, Ferdinand was full of praise for the Porto man

Ferdinand raves about Taremi

“This guy knows how to score goals. He’s a bit of a hybrid between a nine and a ten,” Ferdinand told BBC Sport.  “He’s happy to come short or run through. He’s a really good player. This is what I mean if they get on the counter and in transition and chances do fall to this guy, we will have to be worried.”

Ferdinand wasn’t wrong in his assessment of the ‘ridiculous’ Taremi and he looked a real bright spark for Iran. Taremi has bagged 13 goals for Porto this season and opened his World Cup account against Southgate’s men earlier today.

The Gunners probably could have done with a player like Taremi during the second half of last season. They missed out on Champions League qualification to their bitter rivals Spurs and lacked real firepower up-front towards the end of the season. But Arsenal fans probably won’t be losing too much sleep over it, especially now they have Gabriel Jesus leading the line at the Emirates.

The Iran striker could still represent a good option for the Gunners though and would provide quality backup for Jesus in north London.

Queiroz’s Master Disaster show!

The writing was on the wall when against England, Carlos Queiroz, always a pig-headed coach, decided that he will have his own formidable defense instead of the one that was excellently built by his predecessor and trusted by Dragan Skocic. Majid Hosseini and Morteza Pouralganji were deemed to be more capable central defenders than the duo of Hossein Kananizadegan and Shojaá Khalilzadeh who served Team Melli superbly and played in almost all the FIFA World Cup qualifiers until Queiroz turned up to turn the table upside down!!

A 6-2 humiliation!

For anyone who is even remotely familiar with Team Melli and its long road to qualification, the combination of Hosseini/Pouralganji was not tested nor has been proven. To add to Team Melli’s woes, out of nowhere really, Ali Karimi and Rozbeh Cheshmi suddenly are the starting lineup players in midfield! Granted that Team Melli’s Midfield is most probably the weakest link, lacking leadership, flair, and physical strength, however, the Karimi/Cheshmi was not the solution as Mr. Queiroz found out very soon after kick-off.  The World Cup is not a place for trials. Since when Karimi/Cheshmi starred for team Melli, I suspect behind the closed door against Tunisia. The coach has the full right to try combinations of his choice, but not in the World Cup. This is not a place for trials. The team lacked meaningful preparation matches and its effects showed against England.  Mistakes like that are costly and unrecoverable most of the time.

This Queiroz horror show was reminiscent of the match in Al Ain when Team Melli collapsed against Japan in the semi-final of the AFC Asian Cup 2019.

But then again, what did the fans expect from the team? All the odds were stacked against Team Melli on and off the field. Changing the coach, a couple of months before the World Cup was a risk, a very big risk. The team was stable, qualified quite easily to the finals, and seemed to be on track to have a successful world cup. But someone had to rock the boat, and that person was Mehdi Taj, a dubious character who left the federation in taters resigning his post while under suspicion of wrongdoing in the Belgian Marc Wilmots contract. The appointment of Wilmots was a disaster, on and off the field. He was a failure on the field as he led Iran to the brink of elimination from the FIFA World Cup qualifiers in the first step. Off the field, it was even worst as his appointment was a financial disaster orchestrated by Mehdi taj.

Taj resigned his post as chief of FFIRI while Team Melli was about to be eliminated, claiming ill health, while this ill health did not prevent him from serving as Vice President of the AFC! And by the mercy of God and the hands of the Mullahs, he turns up again a few months before the World Cup!

Facing one of the strongest teams in the world, in the toughest and highest competitions such as the FIFA World Cup requires management, planning, and intelligence none of which is available in the Iranian football echelon now.  Those who know how to run and manage must be loyalists to the regime, or else their know-how and skill are deposited in the trash bin.

While the FFIRI holds the major responsibility for this embarrassment cum disaster of a show, Queiroz bears the ultimate responsibility. He has the audacity to praise his team, while the statistics and actual performance shows the superiority of the English against his own team and ultimately, the difference between men and boys. Queiroz’s mistakes, poor judgment, and poor selection were indeed an embarrassment of the ultimate kind.

At the end of the day, this government-controlled football federation has paid the price for its chaotic policies, mistaken priorities, and lack of management skills. The damage has been done against England and with it a pride of a nation that always revered its national football team.

As for the players, we all hope that they recover and leave that heavy defeat against England aside. Good results against Wales and USA are still possible if Queiroz regains his sanity. For the sake of the players, who are under immense psychological pressure due to the events in Iran and the widespread killings, Team Melli still requires the support of the fans.

Mehdi Taremi needs a special mention here. His wondergoal remains the only point of pride in this forgettable match.

Team Melli stage silent protest

Jonathan Harding Doha
5 hours ago

While the people of Iran protest back home, the national team sent a powerful message of their own from Qatar. Iran coach Carlos Queiroz conceded his players are “affected by the issue” after a 6-2 defeat by England.

Football is the last thing on most people’s minds in Iran at the moment, but the country’s men’s team used the 2022 World Cup in Qatar to launch a powerful protest.

While the national anthem played ahead of their game against England, the team stood silently, refusing to sing. Their decision was met with raucous cheers from the Iran fans, who tried to drown out the anthem with boos for the music and cheers of support for the players. Some applauded with tears in their eyes.

“Everybody knows the circumstances, the environment of my players is not ideal in terms of commitment and concentration, and they are affected by the issue,” a clearly emotional Carlos Queiroz, head of the Iranian team, said afterward. “They are human beings, they are kids.”

“You don’t even know behind the scenes what these kids have been living in the last few days, just because they want to play football,” Queiroz continued.

Before the game, Iran captain Ehsan Hajsafi expressed his condolences to all the bereaved families in Iran, saying: “They should know that we are with them, we support them and we sympathize with them.”

More than a match

Thousands of Iran fans were at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha and although Iran lost 6-2, it was clear long before kick-off this was much more than another game of international football.

Some fans cheered on their way out of the metro. Some wore t-shirts with the words: “women, life, freedom” written on them. During halftime, an Iranian flag with the same three words was held aloft.

Another fan wore a t-shirt with the message: “75 million. We want change, but not a change that will lead to the destruction of Iran.” One girl, stood with her family, took photos of their tickets and laughed, such was her happiness at having the chance to watch their team play at the World Cup.

Indeed, for many fans attending the game, this was an emotional moment.

“The Iranian regime kills us. I’m here because they killed our children,” Rosita told DW.

“I am here just for Iran, for my country, not the Iranian regime. We hate the Iranian regime. We like Ali Karimi, Ali Daei, we like all people who support Iranian people, not those who don’t support Iranian people.”

“Woman Life Freedom” — the message from Iranian fans at the Khalifa International StadiumImage: Mike Egerton/PA/IMAGO

‘We are Iranian’

For Fatima, this was a moment of joy and pain.

“I’m so happy but the people in my country are so unhappy. It’s the first time I have experienced the World Cup, and I am very happy to be here. In Iran, women are not allowed to go to the stadium,” Fatima said. “This is the first time my brother and I go to the stadium.”

In August this year, for the first time in over four decades, Iranian authorities allowed female football fans to attend a men’s league match.

“All Iranian people I think have their hearts with the people in Iran. We are Iranian, all of us,” Behman said before the game.

Some fans didn’t want to talk or wanted the conversation to be about football.

“We are gathering here as football fans to enjoy the game and not to talk about what’s happening in Iran,” said Abdallah.

Iran's players stand together, united in not signing the country's national anthem
Iran’s players stood together, united in not signing the country’s national anthem images: Han Yan/Xinhua/IMAGO

Months of unrest

Ever since the death of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini in September, protests against the government across the country have spread. At Amini’s funeral, the words “women, life, freedom” were first sung. They became a rallying cry across Iran as civil unrest unfolded. Hundreds of protesters are reported to have been killed and thousands more detained.

Before the World Cup began, Iran’s record goal scorer and former Bayern Munich striker Ali Daei refused an invitation to attend the tournament in a show of solidarity with Iranian protesters. During the Iran game, there were chants of support for Daei and Karimi.

In September, star player and Bayer Leverkusen forward Sardar Azmoun posted on Instagram saying: “My heart breaks for Mahsa Amini… I will always support you…  I hope that one day your place in this country will be justified and I hope that the women of my country will never suffer the same.”

Many thought he might not even make the World Cup squad when, after having blacked out his Instagram profile picture in support of the protests, Azmoun posted more support on Instagram stories, saying: “That is worth sacrificing for one strand of Iranian women’s hair. Shame on you who kill people so easily. Long live Iranian women.”

But Azmoun is there in Qatar and although he didn’t start against England he did come off the bench. When he took to the field, he was met with a huge cheer from the crowd — the same was not true for Mehdi Torabi when he came on.

From the protest during the anthem to the visible emotion in the stands and Queiroz’s words late on, this was a historic day for Iranian football. Two goals were cheered late on, but for many here it was clear the desired victory lies beyond the football fields of Qatar.

Iran uprising seen through the eyes of Iranian women

A humulation for Team Melli

Team Melli suffered it heaviest defeat in World Cup history after a 6-2 drubbing by title contenders England.

Jude Bellingham started the rout in the 35th minute, Arsenal star Bokayo Saka made it 2-0 on the 43rd, and Raheem Sterling scored the third in the 45th First half ended 3-0

In the second, Bokayo Saka was on the scoresheet again on the 62nd  to make it 4-0 before Mehdi Tarremi scored from a tremendous shot on the 65th. Substitute Marcus Rashford scored 49 seconds after he was on the field on 71st,  Jack Grealish (90) ended the scoring for England 6-1. Sardar Azmoun who was substituted managed to run past his English marker to face Jordan Pickford on one to one situation. The Everton and England keeper managed to save Azmoun’s shoot. and finally, the VAR review awarded a penalty for Iran where Taremi slotted nicely for his second goal of the evening. The match ended 6-2 for England.

The 45,000 fans in the 60,000-seat Khalifa Stadium in Doha, witnessed a superior display by Southgate players while Iran under Queiroz not only suffered its heaviest defeat but displayed poor control, lack of stamina, bad passing, and total collapse of the defensive strategy that Queiroz prides himself in.

Earlier in the half, a collision between Alireza Beiranvand and Majid Hosseini result in a bad injury to the Iranian goalkeeper. This resulted in a 14 minutes pause while Beiranvand was being treated . Finally, when Beiranvand treatment was over, and while still clearly dazed, he opted to continue playing without any objection from the medical team or the coaching staff, who must have feared losing their number one goalkeeper in detriment to his health. Alireza vividly in a concussion status could not stay focused for longer than a few minutes after the match restarted before he collapsed to the ground. A stretcher took him out while Hossein Hosseini replaced him.

This embarrassing, yet unexpected result was a culmination of many failures and shortfalls in the team. It started with the selection of a coach whose archaic strategy and game plans have proven to be a failure not just in Iran but Colombia and Egypt before it. In fairness, Queiroz was not given proper time for preparation for the greatest of championships like the World Cup, yet for whatever reason, he accepted the job offer despite its risk thinking he knows enough about the team he left three years ago. And the result was a disaster against a quality team in England. The old age team was clearly suffering in physical attributes against the much younger English team, Little preparation compared to other World Cup teams was also in evidence in the misplaced passes. Lack of confidence, concentration, and political turmoil back home were also factors in this heavy defeat.

Iran Line UP

Alireza Biranvand (19′ Seyed Hossein Hosseini), Sadegh Mohrrami, Majid Hosseini, Rozbe Cheshmi (46′ Mohammad Hossein Kanaani Zadegan), Morteza Pouraliganji, Majid Hosseini, Ehsan Haji Safi, Milad Mohammadi (63′ Mehdi Tarabi) ), Ahmad Nooralhi (77′ Sardar Azmoun), Ali Karimi (46′ Saeed Ezzatollahi), Alireza Jahanbakhsh (46′ Ali Gholizadeh) and Mehdi Taremi.

old agers