{"id":42558,"date":"2021-06-01T19:01:52","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T02:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=42558"},"modified":"2021-06-01T19:01:52","modified_gmt":"2021-06-02T02:01:52","slug":"2022-fifa-wcqs-iran-vs-hong-kong-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2021\/06\/01\/2022-fifa-wcqs-iran-vs-hong-kong-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 FIFA WCQ’s: Iran vs Hong Kong [Preview]"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sportskeeda – MANAMA, Iran\u00a0resume their\u00a02022 FIFA World Cup\u00a0qualifying campaign on Thursday with a match against Hong Kong at the Al Muharraq Stadium on neutral soil in Bahrain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran have participated in the last two World Cups. Team Melli, the highest ranked Asian side in the world, are somehow not the favorites right now in Group C.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They started the qualifiers on a bright note, beating Hong Kong 2-0 in the opening game before cutting a swathe through Cambodia in a 14-0 shellacking. However, back-to-back losses to Bahrain and Iraq have punctured some of the early momentum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Persian outfit are currently third with six points from four games, five points off leaders and neighbors Iraq. They cannot afford to lose more points in their quest for a third consecutive World Cup appearance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Hong Kong are just a point adrift of Iran, albeit having played one more game, and hope to at least secure a place in the third round of AFC qualifying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head-To-Head<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Iran have won five of their previous six clashes against Hong Kong, with the only defeat coming way back in a 1974 friendly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first leg of their World Cup qualifiers also went Team Melli’s way when Iran secured a comfortable 2-0 win in\u00a0Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran Form Guide (all competitions): <\/strong>W-W-L-L-W<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong Form Guide (all competitions):\u00a0<\/strong>D-W-L-L-L<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team News<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Iran<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head coach Dragan Skocic has called up 26 players for this month’s quadruple-header. Star names like Brighton’s\u00a0Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Porto forward Mehdi Taremi and prolific striker Sardar Azmoun all feature for Team Melli.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only uncapped player in the squad is Danial Esmaeilifar, the 28-year-old Sepahan defender who’s looking to earn his first international cap.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Injured: <\/strong>None<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suspended: <\/strong>None<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unavailable:\u00a0<\/strong>None<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Strength team is mostly made up of young players alongside the experienced likes of Yapp Hung Fai, Helio and skipper Huang Yang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five players are in line to make their international debuts – Clayton, Diego Eli, Fernando Augusto, Matt Orr and Yu Wai Lim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Injured: <\/strong>None<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suspended: <\/strong>None<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unavailable:\u00a0<\/strong>None<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Predicted XI<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Iran (4-4-2): <\/strong>Alireza Beiranvand; Siamak Nemati, Shoja Khalilzadeh, Hossein Kanaanizadegan, Milad Mohammadi; Vahid Amiri, Ahmad Nourollahi, Ehsan Hajsafi, Ali Gholizadeh; Sardar Azmoun, Mehdi Taremi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong (4-1-4-1):\u00a0<\/strong>Yapp Hung Fai; Tong Kin Man, Hing Wa Fung, Helio, Wang Kit Tsui; Yan Huang; Siu Kwan Cheng, Shinichi Chan, Wong Wai, Wai Keung Chun; James Ha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Score Prediction<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Iran are the highest-ranked Asian side and favorites to qualify for a third straight World Cup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They’ve had some bumps on the road so far but have the caliber to see off Hong Kong and secure another three-point haul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prediction:<\/strong> Iran 3-0 Hong Kong<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sportskeeda – MANAMA, Iran\u00a0resume their\u00a02022 FIFA World Cup\u00a0qualifying campaign on Thursday with a match against…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":42559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,92,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1763,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26307"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42560,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42558\/revisions\/42560"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}