The host of the FIFA 2018 World Cup will host the Iran’s Team Melli in the first game in the autumn.

Russia, which is preparing itself for the finals of the FIFA World Cup, has preferred to use the FIFA day to play  against a club side while the majority of the national teams are involved in the World Cup qualifiers or International friendly matches. On Tuesday Russia National Team will be playing Dynamo with Moscow.

In describing preparations for Russia, Stanislav Cherchesov , the team's manager commented on the forthcoming match against Iran and said: "We are going to play the Iranian national team after the match with Dynamo which is our first game of the long preparation. It is an exciting challenge. And it will be a serious benchmark for us, especially in our front line which will be facing an aggressively built solid defensive structure. This match will test our ability to cross one of the best defense lines in the world. "

The Russian coach, referring to the magnificent statistics that Iran has achieved so far to qualify for the World Cup without conceding a goal, added: "Certainly the confrontation with Iran, which offers a different style of football and demonstrated an indescribable defense, our Forwards will be seriously tested. This will be our benchmark and our ability to score in this match against this defense will be apparent in a few months at the World Cup. "

Iran and Russia, in accordance with will play in October 10th, 2017, in a Russian city other than Moscow to test their ability to appear in the final stage of the World Cup.

Queiroz: Qualification Celebrations should be for others / accusation of collusion is dirty and cowardly 

Team Melli head coach says that "the bad  and rough behavior of the Syrian players in the last game will inspire the national team with a motivated desire to defeat them in Azadi stadium.”

According to ISNA, Team Melli head coach Carlos Queiroz was talking to the press while  supervising the Team’s Practice session today (Sunday) and particularly about the match against Syria "The results and numbers are reflections of  Syria’s good performance in the World Cup qualifiers. Syria is in third place in the ranking table, which surprised everyone with such results. We are alert and ready to defeat this team.”

He continued, "The Syrians' behavior in the previous game gives us a lot of motivation to appear with full strength in front of them. They did not behave well in that game and were quite rough and sometimes violent.”

The coach continued to talk about records: "These records were important because we had good performances on the pitch and that’s why we achieved some records, but we do not start the game, to get a special result that we already had in our minds. Only our effort in the ground is those necessary to get the result, but if we keep our goal clean, we will have a good record for the national team and supporters.”

He also explained the frustration of the Team Melli players and the level of protest because their efforts were overlooked by the administrators of the federation: "This is not about our last match, but about issues that have been going on for months. What happened yesterday (Saturday) at the airport is an example that we have been repeatedly mentioning for six, seven years now, but it keeps repeating; it is not a good surrounding to interview in the middle of crowds at the airport with other passengers and airport staff, there should be a special dedicated place for that, yet it's still the same old as we have seen yesterday.”

He added: "Unfortunately, after seven years we again saw that there was no professional behavior and lack of organization yesterday. We were on the same exit side as the passengers in the baggage carousel while the reporters were roaming around for interviews. It was not the appropriate place to conduct an interview. Yesterday's events indicate that things are going wrong again. This sort of things happens even after seven years and the achievements that we have attained, represents the gap between the authorities and the national team.”

Commenting on the friendly game versus Russia "Playing with Russia is the result of my own personal contacts and my efforts," said Queiroz, pointing out that he needs to play friendly matches in order to prepare for the World Cup. “We were supposed to have another friendly game a couple of days before the match with Russia, but the Football Association announced that the game was canceled due to financial problems.”

Queiroz then said “ I will try to create a bank account so that we can manage the preparation of the national team through popular donations by the fans. This federation always lacks money”

Carlos Queiroz, criticizing some of the media, said: “a newspaper that always critical of our work but it's interesting that their reporters do not even attend the national team's training sessions (...), they try to undermine the spirit of our players' and question the work of the players and technical staff in order to give us some moral lessons. They should know that they are not in a position to give us moral lessons. I think it's better for the media to do their job and prevent the threats that players make, and let them do their job.”

The head coach commented on some media reports of possible collusion between Iran and Syria: "These are so dirty and cowardly accusation which is only aimed at questioning Iran's extraordinary achievement in the competition. My advice to the media is to focus on helping prepare the national team so that we can continue our success. As long as I wear the shirt of this country, and even as long as I live, I will call Iran "my country," and I also ask you to "support my country" to qualify to the World Cup and then to support it.”

Carlos Queiroz said about the ceremony celebrating the national Team qualification to the FIFA World Cup 2018 after the Iran-Syria game, said: "The arrangement of any such ceremony is the specialty of the Football Federation and its officials. We will do just our work on the pitch, then go home and go to our friends and family. Celebrations is for others. It is a good opportunity for you to use the photos and videos of this celebration.”

At the conclusion of the interview, Queiroz did not comment on the journalist's question that Massoud Shojaei was not invited to the national team, "I thought you wanted to talk about Javad Nekounam and him not accompanying the national team , and ask a question why?. I think that the failure to pay seven months of Javad Nekounam's wages might have caused his absence.”

Carlos Queiroz included a player who is unknown to many Team Melli fans in Iran. The Swedish born Saman Ghoddos was picked by the Portuguese coach as part of the squad which will face South Korea in the World Cup 2018 qualifiers.

Saman Ghoddos ( born in Malmö September 6,1993 ) is a Swedish-born Iranian footballer who plays for Östersunds FK in the Swedish Allsvenskan. He plays in several roles but mainly as an attacking midfielder, but also striker, or winger. Ghoddos has previously played for the Swedish national team . 

Queiroz has a special  affection for Iranian players playing in Europe. He believes that the professional environment of European leagues and the discipline instilled in the players, add great value to Team Melli.

However,  not all the players Queiroz he hand-picked turned out to be good deals. Davari, Beitashour and Nazari made a handful of appearances for Team Melli never to be picked again. However, Ghoochannejad and Ashkan Dejagah who were picked by Queiroz have been brilliant choices and continue to perform at the highest standards.

Ghoddos is reported to be a quality player in an area that Team Melli lacks quality. It is unclear if Queiroz will play him against the Koreans. With Iran already qualified, Ghoddos might add value in a match that makes little difference for the team but for a valuable trial.