FIFA World Cup™ Group Stage: Iran - Portugal; Info, Updates & Live Reports (25.06.18)

[The Realist]

Ya but Ashkan and Gucci were arguably some of our best players with WC experience. Shouldn't they have been tried at least in this match against Portugal?!

Arguably yes Shahnameh Jaan but we don’t know what their performance in the training have shown.
I too wanted to see fresh faces including Torabi, Montazeri, Ashkan and Gucci but I too need to trust the coach knowing things that I don’t know about how to Manage a Team Meli and it’s players.

[Omids]

Taremi has a chance each at the end of each game with spain and portugal to write iranian football history and failed both times. Broke our hearts...

[beevee]

Neither Portugal or Spain are that good this time around. You really think this Portugal team will beat Uruguay? lol

Spain was losing to a hopeless Morcoo team until the very last minute. I honestly do not see them going far. Would not be surprised if they lost to Russia.

Really dude? Uruguay will beat Portugal? And Morocco was hopeless?? I don't know what you're smoking but you need to take a break

[dash_sina]

did you not watch the game today. There were many instances of us going on the attack with timely and accurate passes.
There is no such thing as luck. Either you hit the goal post or you don't. Either you commit a defensive mistake or you don't. And if you still insist we were lucky, you may want to go back and look at that LUCKY spain goal which was a deflection.

Of course I watched the whole game with full attention, no sorry we did give most of the balls away, having 30 percent possession means we didn't have much of the ball so to give them away means we did not play good enough! Just rationally we need better football to go through.Our defense was solid but we really really struggled with passing the ball in the midfield to create chances. However after conceding the first goal our play got worse, they panicked, couldn't play relaxed anymore which made them give the ball away even more. I think the first 35 minutes we played better football(except the goal keeper blunders) then things were not looking good, I was so frustrated with the extent of errors on and on.

[Shantaram]

Can someone please explain for me, would we be thru if Marocco won 2-1??

[Fesenjan]

Can someone please explain for me, would we be thru if Marocco won 2-1??

No. If Morocco had won by two goals (e.g. 3-1, 4-2), Iran would have advanced.

[Sam van Dam]

Can someone please explain for me, would we be thru if Marocco won 2-1??

we needed a win to advance OR Morocco to win by 2 goals, while we tie. had morocco won by 2 we would be tied with Spain with a 0 goal difference while spain would be -1. so since thats the first tie breaker, we'd advance

[maziar]

Can someone please explain for me, would we be thru if Marocco won 2-1??

No. Spain would have gone through as the second placed team.

[The Realist]

Can someone please explain for me, would we be thru if Marocco won 2-1??

Nope- Spain would have had better goals scored than Iran - 5 v 2

We would have needed Spain to lose by 2 clear goals

[TheFrasbul]

Can everyone please stop being upset? Our boys deserve to be praised and celebrated. CQ deserves to be celebrated. Today is not a sad day in Iranian football but the greatest day of Iranian football. Today we showed that we wouldn't let Spain and Portugal just go through by default. We scared them. They had to fight. And in the end both barely made it through.
Dametun Garm bachehaye Irani!

[shahname]

Arguably yes Shahnameh Jaan but we don’t know what their performance in the training have shown.
I too wanted to see fresh faces including Torabi, Montazeri, Ashkan and Gucci but I too need to trust the coach knowing things that I don’t know about how to Manage a Team Meli and it’s players.

But then I don't understand why CQ took them with him to Russia! Then he at least should have taken Rezaei from Charleroi instead of Gucci.

[Nokhodi]

Unbelievable. We missed the 2nd by one goal (either from us or if Morocco had beaten Spain) - yet we have people who make the same stupid criticisms and jokes.
Enjoy life. Breath a little. Be happy. It's ok to be positive in life.

If you can't enjoy this, you will never enjoy football.
Unless you're a troll, be sure you are considered very shitty company by anyone watching the game with you.

[The Realist]

Let’s look at it this way- when the Group was drawn - we were frightened by the prospects and thrilled by the excitements of being drawn in the Group of Death

Let’s see what happened

We beat the Champions of Africa 1-0
We lost narrowly (fluke goal) to The former World Champion 1-0
We tied with the European Champions 1-1

Job very well-down
Proud to be Iranian, long live Iran.
Thank you Boys, Thank you CQ

[Soroush-IK]

I feel empty but proud of our boys. We where inches away from ending on top of the group. We put on the biggest display of fighting power against Africas best team, the former World/Euro champions and the current Euro champions. I have never seen ANY team fight the way we fought in the WC.

I wished we could string more passes together, be more calm and clinical when finishing, but let's not forget, while KSA where warming up with Italy, Germany and Brazil, countries where refusing to play us one after another or to supply us with shoes.

We win together, we loose together. We might have lost out of the WC but we won the respect we deserve.

Afarain bacheha, afarin TM, afarin Queiroz.

[thatpersianguy]

Gutted by the end result but I'm so proud of our team and how well we played throughout this tournament. If we were to miss out, I'd prefer losing in heartbreaking fashion than to not have had a chance at all. Our boys should keep their heads held high, they went toe-to-toe with two of Europe's strongest sides and defeated a Morocco team that hadn't lost in a long while. I hope Queiroz re-signs, he's done wonders with this program.

Some overall thoughts:
- I felt that we subbed in the right players but subbed off the wrong ones. I would have definitely subbed in Ghoddos for Taremi instead of Jahanbakhsh, same with Ansarifard for Amiri instead of Ezatollahi.
- The Taremi shot at the end was a golden opportunity, would have hoped he aimed for a shot to the right of the goal instead of going short side. But I'll give him credit, his work rate was incredible in this match, he left it all out there on the field. Just hope he can learn from this and carry the experience with him forward.
- Ansarifard is underappreciated IMO, he's a savvy veteran presence on this team and I hope he can keep form for the next few years.
- I thought at some point Dejagah would have been a sub in this tournament, but it seems like the earlier reports of being hurt/unfit were true.
- Looking forward to seeing how far this program progresses now. There's a lot of exciting young talent coming up the ranks. I'm also hoping we can see some of our current players end up in stronger leagues (particularly the likes of Jahanbakhsh, Azmoun, and Ezatollahi).