{"id":51391,"date":"2024-06-09T18:08:46","date_gmt":"2024-06-10T01:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/?p=51391"},"modified":"2024-06-09T18:08:53","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T01:08:53","slug":"wcq-2026-sportmole-iran-vs-uzbekistan-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/2024\/06\/09\/wcq-2026-sportmole-iran-vs-uzbekistan-preview\/","title":{"rendered":"WCQ 2026: Sportmole – Iran vs Uzbekistan [Preview]"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sportmole.co.uk – TEHRAN, Iran and Uzbekistan will battle it out for top spot in Group E when they face off in Tuesday’s 2026 World Cup qualifier.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both sides have collected 13 points from their five matches, but Iran have a slight edge due to their goal-difference advantage.<\/p>\n

Iran have taken the first steps towards reaching a fourth consecutive World Cup after securing their spot in the third stage of qualifying with minimum fuss.<\/p>\n

They began their campaign with a win over Hong Kong and a draw against Uzbekistan, before going on to claim back-to-back victories over Turkmenistan.<\/p>\n

Iran enjoyed another successful outing in Thursday’s away meeting with Hong Kong thanks to a Mehdi Taremi hat-trick and a Sardar Azmoun strike.<\/p>\n

While they may have little to play for, Team Melli will still want to earn the honour of advancing as group winners, knowing that a draw will be enough to secure pole position.<\/p>\n

They will fancy their chances of achieving such a result, having avoided in each of their previous 21 home games in World Cup qualifying.<\/p>\n

Uzbekistan are one step closer to achieving World Cup qualification for the first time after matching Iran’s points total to ease through to the third stage.<\/p>\n

Srecko Katanec’s side took four points from their first two matches, before winning both of their encounters against Hong Kong.<\/p>\n

They went on to record a third consecutive qualifying victory in Thursday’s outing against Turkmenistan, with Husniddin Aliqulov, Oston Urunov and Sherzod Nasrullaev all getting on the scoresheet in a 3-1 win.<\/p>\n

Uzbekistan will be targeting another victory in Tuesday’s fixture as they look to leapfrog Iran to claim top spot in Group E.<\/p>\n

However, their hopes of claiming all three points will be tempered by the fact that they have not beaten Iran since recording a 1-0 victory in November 2012.<\/p>\n

Team News:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Iran defender Hossein Kanaanizadegan is likely to come into the side after serving a one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation.<\/p>\n

There is also a possibility that Adana Demirspor left-back Milad Mohammadi will be presented with a starting opportunity.<\/p>\n

Buoyed from netting a hat-trick, Taremi will look to add to his 48-goal international tally when he lines up against Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Uzbekistan defender Farrukh Sayfiev is set to return to the fold, having served a one-match ban for picking up two yellow cards in qualifying.<\/p>\n

Uzbekistan’s all-time top scorer Eldor Shomurodov will have the opportunity to add to the 40 goals that he has scored for his country.<\/p>\n

Iran possible starting lineup:<\/strong>
\nNiazmand; Yousefi, Kanaanizadegan, Khalilzadeh, Mohammadi; Ghorbani; Jahanbakhsh, Ghoddos, Ghayedi; Azmoun, Taremi<\/p>\n

Uzbekistan possible starting lineup:<\/strong>
\nYusupov; Khusanov, Eshmurodov, Ashurmatov; Sayfiev, Khamrobekov, Shukurov, Turgunboev; Masharipov, Urunov, Shomurodov<\/p>\n

Prediction: <\/strong>Iran 2-1 Uzbekistan<\/p>\n

With the two teams sitting level on 13 points, we think that Tuesday’s contest will prove to be a close-fought affair and that Iran will make full use of home advantage to claim a narrow victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sportmole.co.uk – TEHRAN, Iran and Uzbekistan will battle it out for top spot in Group…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26307,"featured_media":51392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[90,84,86,110],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c17-asian-competitions","category-c47-featured-news","category-c13-team-melli-news","category-world-cup"],"views":1428,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51391","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=51391"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51394,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51391\/revisions\/51394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/51392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.persianfootball.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}