{"id":44837,"date":"2022-01-26T19:08:50","date_gmt":"2022-01-27T03:08:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=44837"},"modified":"2022-01-26T19:08:50","modified_gmt":"2022-01-27T03:08:50","slug":"2022-fifa-world-cup-qualifiers-iran-vs-iraq-preview%ef%bf%bc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2022\/01\/26\/2022-fifa-world-cup-qualifiers-iran-vs-iraq-preview%ef%bf%bc\/","title":{"rendered":"2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers: Iran vs Iraq [Preview]\ufffc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SportsKeeda – TEHRAN, Iran will host geographic rivals\u00a0Iraq\u00a0in a\u00a02022 FIFA World Cup qualifier\u00a0at the Azadi Stadium on Thursday.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The home side have the edge in Group A and currently sit at the summit of the table, having garnered 16 points from six matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq have four points from six games and sit in fifth spot. Anything other than a win will put their hopes of automatic qualification for a second FIFA World Cup appearance in jeopardy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u00a0come into the game full of confidence, having dispatched Syria with a 3-0 win in their last FIFA World Cup qualifier in November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq were 1-0 victors over Uganda in a friendly fixture to launch the 32,000 capacity Al-Madina Stadium on Friday. Alaa Abdulnai’s 17th-minute strike was enough to settle the contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Head-to-Head<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The two sides have met on 30 occasions in the past and Iran have a vastly superior record with 17 wins to their name. Iraq were victorious on six occasions while seven matches in the past ended in a draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their most recent fixture came in September when Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Mehdi Taremi were among the goals in a 3-0 away victory for Iran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran form guide<\/strong>: W-W-D-W-W<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq form guide<\/strong>: W-L-D-D-L<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Mehdi Taremi and Alireza Jahanbakhsh headline the squad to dispute January’s FIFA World Cup qualifiers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A number of players, including captain Ehsan Hajsafi, have been sidelined by COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

COVID-19<\/strong>: Ehsan Hajsafi, Majid Hosseini, Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh, Mehdi Mehdipour, Sardar Azmoun<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Iraq<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coach Zeljko Petrovic called up 25 players to dispute the games against Iran and Lebanon. Defender Ali Faez had to pull out of the squad due to injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Injuries<\/strong>: Ali Faez<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

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

Iran Predicted XI (4-3-3)<\/strong>: Alireza Beiranvand (GK); Sadegh Moharrami, Shojae Khalilzadeh, Milad Mohammadi, Omid Noorafkan; Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Saeid Ezatolahi, Vahid Amiri; Karim Ansarifard, Mehdi Taremi, Kaveh Rezaei<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq Predicted X<\/strong>I\u00a0(4-4-2)<\/strong>: Fahad Talib (GK); Ahmed Ibrahim, Manaf Younis, Mustafa Nadhim, Hassan Raed; Saad Abdul-Amir, Amjad Attwan, Mohammed Ali Abbood, Hussein Ali; Aymen Hussein, Alaa Abbas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prediction<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Iran are favorites and have vastly superior players to their neighbors. Barring an unlikely upset, there should be only one winner here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iraq’s struggles in attack mean that the hosts are unlikely to be too troubled in defense. Despite missing the services of key players, we are backing Iran to emerge triumphant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prediction<\/strong>: Iran 2-0 Iraq<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SportsKeeda – TEHRAN, Iran will host geographic rivals\u00a0Iraq\u00a0in a\u00a02022 FIFA World Cup qualifier\u00a0at the Azadi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":44838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,92,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44837","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":2320,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44837","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=44837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44839,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44837\/revisions\/44839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}