{"id":47029,"date":"2022-09-26T06:53:07","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T13:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=47029"},"modified":"2022-09-26T06:53:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T13:53:08","slug":"five-iran-players-england-need-to-watch-out-for-in-wc-group-b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2022\/09\/26\/five-iran-players-england-need-to-watch-out-for-in-wc-group-b\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Iran players England need to watch out for in WC Group B"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Dailymail.co.uk – LONDON, While England are struggling to perform, Iran were impressive against Uruguay<\/strong>. Mehdi Taremi carries Iran’s greatest threat with seven goals in nine for Porto<\/strong>, he will be joined up front by Brentford forward Saman Ghoddos<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iran beat Uruguay 1-0 on Friday and suddenly are not looking like the whipping boys in Group B which contains England, Wales and the USA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Returning manager Carlos Queiroz \u2014 formerly Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s No 2 at\u00a0Manchester United\u00a0\u2014 has galvanised them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are five players who will pose a threat when they meet England first up in Doha\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mehdi Taremi, Forward <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Iran\u2019s biggest threat and their outstanding player.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The No 9 has consistently scored and assisted goals for the last three seasons at Porto and though he is best known for his bicycle-kick finish against Chelsea in the 2020-21 Champions League, he also brought the best out of Luis Diaz before the Colombian left Porto for Liverpool last season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taremi provided many assists in that effective partnership. The 30-year-old will probably play on the right of a three in Doha, running on to knock-downs from the 6ft 1in target-man Sardar Azmoun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saman Ghoddos – Forward<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Brentford forward Ghoddos was a real danger across the front line against Uruguay. He began the move which brought the goal and delivered the pass of the night, in a one-two from which Mehdi Torabi should have scored. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lack of game time at Brentford, where the 29-year-old hasn\u2019t appeared from the bench this season, could mean Queiroz does not start with him but his favoured position is right behind centre forward Azmoun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saeid Ezatolahi – Defensive midfielder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A tall, elegant midfielder who plays with his head up, has time on the ball and links play. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never quite fulfilled his early promise and, after a season with Atletico Madrid as a youth player, he has had to adjust to a series of loans, including a brief spell at Reading curtailed by injury. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasional tendency not to shift the ball fast enough but an eye-catching 25-year-old who could be a real presence for Iran<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alireza Beiranvand – goalkeeper<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s going to be a fight between the two goalkeepers \u2014 Beiranvand and Sayedpayam Niazmand \u2014 for the starting spot in Doha but in Beiranvand, England and Wales will be up against a very good shot-stopper who saved a penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 6ft 5in 30-year-old made a string of sharp saves against Uruguay on Friday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is also equipped with a huge throw and holds a Guinness World Record for hurling the ball 67 yards in a 2016 game against South Korea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hossein Kanani – Defender<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A journeyman who has never made the big leagues but he is the player who could potentially most frustrate Gareth Southgate and Rob Page, as the defensive pillar for Iran. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arguably the Iranian team\u2019s best quality is their indefatigability and fight. They categorically refuse to roll over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kanani, a 28-year-old who plays for a Qatari club side, most epitomized this against Uruguay, literally going nose-to-nose with Luis Suarez.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He made an excellent last-ditch challenge to deny Liverpool\u2019s Darwin Nunez in that game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dailymail.co.uk – LONDON, While England are struggling to perform, Iran were impressive against Uruguay. Mehdi…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":47030,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84,92,89,93,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c47-featured-news","category-c21-international-football-news","category-c16-iranian-legionairs","category-c22-players-spotlight","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1220,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47029","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=47029"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47029\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47031,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47029\/revisions\/47031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}