The performance of Iranian clubs in the AFC Champions Leagues is always a good indicator of the standard of Team Melli since almost all the domestic players are from clubs playing in this competition, Persepolis being the exception.

After the second round, Iranian clubs results were mixed, with Esteghlal surprisingly for some, while naturally for others, faring the worst out of the 4 Iranian teams.  Esteghlal, the most successful Iranian club in the history of the competition winning it twice and finalist once, is expected to at least qualify for the next round, in a group that is far from being difficult. However the two loses at home in Azadi against ALShabab of Saudi Arabia and then the defeat against Al Rayyan in Doha, has created an immense burden on Ghalenoei to achieve what many consider to be the minimum, which is the qiualifcation. The star studded team has Heydari, Beighzadeh  , Teymourian & Sadeghi in Team Melli while they have lost the services of Nekounam , Montazeri and Jabbari other Team Melli players.

The defeat against Al Rayyan brought up one interesting discussion related to Team Melli’s players’ selection. The only goal of the match came after a terrible rudimentary blunder by Seyed Mehdi Rahmati who failed to grab an easy cross , with the ball slipping through his hands, giving the Al Rayyan forward a dream gift of simply tacking the ball into the empty net.

That goal gift by Rahmati  was enough to sink Esteghlal naturally bring up the debate about Queiroz concerns with the most experienced goalkeeper in the league. Rahmati , despite his brilliance as a shot stopper , has an acute weakness in his tactics on crosses. His timing has failed him time and again  , a a fact that Carlos Queiroz could not simply ignore or tuck under the carpet. It was his interest in having a replacement for Rahmati and criticism of the keeper that lead to Rahmati taking a break, according to his interpretation from Team Melli. That Petulant act was enough for Queiroz to cross Rahmati out of his list for good.

Another player in the Queiroz black list is Hadi Aghili , missed a penalty against Al Hilal but his blushes was saved by a injury time winner for Sepahan by Sukaj

For what it is worth, with Rahmati at least, it is quite clear that Carlos Queiroz was not far off in his assessment of the Esteghlal goalkeeper with his liabilities. Queiroz is surely vindicated.