The national teams of Iran and Bosnia will face off in an international friendly match this evening in Sarajevo. Both teams will be without key players in the lineup.

The match is the first since that memorial encounter in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The match (Thursday) at 20:30 Tehran time (18:00 local time) at Asim Farhatovic Stadium is held on FIFA Day allowing many countries the chance to test their players. For many football fans, this match is a reminder of the one between the two teams in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where the game ended with a score of 3 – 1 in favor of the European rival, but in the end, neither team managed to advance from the group.

In the latest FIFA rankings, Iran is 29th while Bosnia-Herzegovina is 51st. Continentally, Iran is the second-ranked team in Asia while and Bosnia is ranked 30th in Europe. The most crucial point of this game is the absence of many Bosnian key players either enforced due to injuries but mainly due to an attempt by the coach to give more opportunities to domestic young players and several players playing in Eastern European countries. In this match, the Bosnian coach will give a rest to stars such as Miralem Pjanić, Sead Kolašinac, etc. in preparation for the game against Italy and the Netherlands.

The biggest absentee of the game is Edin Dzeko, the star of Italian AS Roma, who is absent due to Coronavirus. Also, three players and two members of the Bosnian technical staff are in the same situation as Dzeko and lost this game. In Team Melli, the illness of Mojtaba Najarian and Sasan Ansari prevented them from joining the squad hence missing the match. Mehdi Shiri and Ali Karimi are the replacement players.

The team coach Dragan Skocic, who is going through his second camp with Iran, has invited a list of domestic league players to the squad. There is a significant list of key players who will miss this match such as Azmoun, Taremi, Ghoddos, Jahanbakhsh, Beiranvand, Mohebbi, Torabi, Ghafouri, Rezaian, and so on.

However, despite being criticized, the national team coach hopes to win this friendly: “I know Bosnia well and I am aware of the strengths and weaknesses of this team. We want to win against them on and off the field. I wish Bosnia success in his next games, but we want to beat this team in the next game.”

In the first game since Dragan Skočić, took over, Team Melli defeated Uzbekistan 2-1 away from home to mark a positive start and hope for an impressive run for the Croatian coach’s tenure. Team Melli will be in Bosnia from Monday night and will return to Tehran after Thursday’s match and will not have any more friendly matches, which is due to the perpetual weakness of the Iranian federation in arranging friendly matches.

The Bosnian national football team suffered a recession after the 2014 World Cup and could not qualify for Euro 2016 or even the 2018 World Cup. Bosnia did not qualify for Euro 2021 recently, so the trail of failure is still hanging around Bosnia disappointing its fans. However, in the second round of the Europa League, they reached the highest level of competition and are in a group consisting of the Netherlands, Italy, and Poland. Bosnia collected 2 points only from its first 4 games. However, with several of the squad members playing professionally in European leagues, they are still a serious benchmark for Iran.

 “In the game against Iran, we want to give some players a chance, specifically those who do not normally get playing time. This game is an opportunity to learn about the technical quality of the young and newly invited players,” Dušan Bajević said of his team’s condition before the friendly against Iran and Italy in the Europa League.

“They are playing in the Bosnian league, but they are not at the level of the players who play in the European leagues. However, the national team player must always be serious.” The Bosnian coach also called Iran a strong team in the offensive line, but considered the national team’s defensive line to be weak: “The Iranian national team has not been able to achieve the desired results in the past few years. They changed their coach. Skocic has taken over the reins of Iran and now he has only played one game while he was in charge on the bench. We analyzed Iran’s friendly against Uzbekistan. They have good players in attack but weak in defense.”