Team Melli battles for qualification.

On Monday, Bahrain will be hosting Team Melli in one of the most peculiar of injustices of football. The match which is supposed to be the home game fr Iran is instead played in Bahrain! Never in the history of the FIFA World Cup, a team played both its home and away matches in one side’s venue like it is happening now with Iran.

Iran not only needs to battle the politics but pass a difficult hurdle in Bahrain Team, which to its credit, has been playing very good football through the preliminaries and now occupying the top of the table with 12 points. The battle between Iran and Bahrain promises to be a spectacular encounter, as a win for either side could make a huge difference in the final outcome of Group C.

Team Melli returned to form with their 3-1 win over Hong Kong last Thursday, reviving their top spot aspirations and with a match in hand, head coach Dragan Skocic will expect his side to take the game to hosts Bahrain. The weather on Monday at kick-off time is expected to be 35 degrees Celsius with a humidity of 39% with a wind speed of 26 Km/h. Generally speaking, it is a mildly warm day for Bahrain, which could have been much worst.l

Bahrain fancies their chances as they will head into the tie boosted by their win over Cambodia and, more importantly, in the knowledge that they have already defeated Iran in the Asian Qualifiers – with Mohamed Al Hardan scoring the only goal in their October 2019 meeting. Al Hardan will be missing due to an operation on his foot.

Iran’s strikeforce may be the most famous of the four lines with world-famous names like Taremi and Azmoun, however, the pair failed to score any of the three goals against Hong Kong in the last match. On the other hand, Komail Al Aswad, Ali Madan, and veteran striker Ismaeel Abdulatif all scored twice each against Cambodia and head coach Helio Sousa will be happy with the fact that his team has multiple sources for goals against a team seeking to qualify for their third consecutive FIFA World Cup Finals.

While Sousa was all praise for Team Melli during the press conference, it is no secret that he has been focusing on this match and considering it as a decider. A shrewd tactician who managed his squad rotation and substitution quite well during the Gulf Cup tournament of 2019 leading Bahrain to left the cup for the first time in their history.

Dragan Skocic has kept the starting line up close to his heart. In the Hong Kong match, when it was clear that the forwards were having difficulties, with few substitutes he revived the team. It is unknown if he will stick with Azamoun and Taremi, but most probably he will awaiting the deliveries of these two before any substitutions are carried out.

Off-field, the authorities have been hyping the fans who would be able to watch the match on TV only. Bahrain TV has broadcast that infamous match of World Cup 2002 qualifiers when Bahrain defeated Iran on the same ground to let Saudi Arabia go through.

Meanwhile, a source in the Iraqi Team delegation, confirmed, on Saturday, that Iraq Player, Ali Fayez, was infected with the Coronavirus. The source said in an interview with “Mawazine News” that “the Bahraini health authorities informed the team’s delegation of the positive corona result of Ali Fayez.

According to the regulations, the player will be isolated from the rest and will not be appearing for his team in any further matches.

The source pointed out that “the Iraqi defender will miss the Asian qualifiers due to being quarantined in Bahrain.” The team’s delegation made several contacts with the Bahraini side to return the swab to the player Ali Fayez and to confirm that he was infected with the Coronavirus, so that the player was subjected to a second swab yesterday evening, Friday, the results of which appeared today, Saturday, and it was confirmed that the player was infected and who will be subject to quarantine for a period of ten days, which means his official absence from all the Iraq matches in the double Asian qualifiers against Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Iran.

Iran v Bahrain
Venue: Bahrain National Stadium, Riffa
Kick-off: 19:30 hours (UTC+3) – 21:00 Iran Time