The friendly international against Japan has been finalized and will be played on FIFA Day on 13th October 2015 in Azadi Stadium.

The match will come 5 days after Team Melli has played Oman its main Group D rival in FIFA World Cup 2018 qualifiers in Muscat. This friendly has been discussed  between the two federation but only finalized yesterday to nicely slot between the two teams commitments in the World Cup qualifiers.

Both the Asian giants have stumbled in the first round of FIFA World Cup qualification rounds 2018 with Japan surprisingly being held by Singapore at home, and Iran facing the same against Turkmenistan away. As such , this edition of the competition might be a shade more difficult than both Iran and Japan has expected and matches like this friendly will be beneficial for the two main contenders for a place in World Cup 2018 finals in Russia.

The friendly in Tehran will be the first between the two teams in 10 years . The last time the two have met was in the World Cup 2006 qualifiers where Iran lost 2-1 in Yokohama. None of the players in that match will be featuring in the October friendly.

The Iran and Japan rivalry goes back to the fifties of last century. The two teams met for the first time in the Asian Games 1951  semi-finals in New Delhi, where the match ended goal-less. In the replay the next day Iran drew first blood and won in a closely fought match 3-2  with 2 goals from Mehdi Masoud-Ansari and one from Masoud Broumand. Japan goals came from Masanori Tokita and Toro Kagawa.

16 matches have been played between the teams with Iran edging Japan by 6 wins against 5. 5 matches were drawn.