WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

i think its gonna be more teams that are better 2026!

 

He’a gonna wait for a comment he can use from either your manager or one of your players or something from your media, and then take a big issue with it, say it was an insult to the Iranian nation and then start a war of words with your manager, your players, fans , the media and also start mocking them for weeks and months, and get into their heads right into the match.

He literally walked around Korea for a week with a photoshopped picture of Korea’s manager with an Uzbekistan jersey on, after the Korean manager had said that he would want Uzbekistan to qualify over Iran. He also gave the Korean bench a fist after we won the match in question, hours before they were all fired by the Korean federation.

 

Officially, Iran has lost 2 games (both friendlies) since World Cup 2014. One of them was a closed door match, involving purely fringe players, which practically no one saw as it was closed to fans, journalists and cameras. Other than being a statistical blemish on Iran's record, it didn't count for me and I certainly didn't see it. The other was our loss to Sweden in a friendly in March 2015. As the only side that I have seen beat Iran since World Cup 2014, rest assured: I don't underrate Sweden. To me they were not just the worst "pot 3" side anyone could draw. They are better than many "pot 2" teams.

But going back to your point about Portugal and Spain being very tough: no kidding! Spain was the so-called "pot 2" team that everyone and their mom hoped to avoid! And honestly, there is no objective reason to deny Portugal being one of the top contenders to even lift the trophy in Russia. This group -- even with underrated Iran and over-hyped but poorly ranked Morocco -- is still the toughest group in this World Cup in terms of its average rating, rankings and strength. And you can be sure of this: in any group Iran could have drawn hat didn't have Spain as a pot 2, Sweden as pot 3 (and, preferably but not necessarily, Nigeria/Morocco as pot 4 side), I would easily put money on Iran making it out of the group stage. In this group, I am not putting any money on Iran. I just hope we can pull of the improbable surprises which I know we are capable of but which would require a lot (including luck) going our way.

 

I remember when Italy drew Sweden many Italians were happy with the fact they didn't get Ireland or Greece lol. I couldn't help but shake my head and wonder what world they were living in. The signs of Sweden emerging as strong/competitive without needing Zlatan, were seen with the u21 2015 champs, unfortunately beating Portugal in penalties in the final. Both teams have been incorporating some of those guys and just like Sweden and Zlatan, when Ronaldo retires many people will make the mistake of not realising we will be just fine.

Give Sweden about 4 more years and they will be even stronger.

For Portugal vs Spain, well since Portugal emergence back 18 years ago all games have been extremely tight. Euro 2004 Portugal wins 1-0, WC 2010 Spain wins 1-0 when CQ was our manager. Friendly game in 2011 I believe, Portugal wins 4-0 but I think we can disregard that, and Euro 2012 Spain wins via penalties. I expect nothing less than another very closely contested game but have to give Spain the edge. They simply have a ridiculous amount of talent. That being said I still think a draw is likely. Nothing easy about this group for anyone, even Spain. I think all teams still in contention on match day 3.

 

I remember all those matches, the best was i think Euro 2012, maybe not for you hehe.
U guys think Spain can have a problem when Real Madrid doesnt play so good now?
Yea we was lucky when we won that final over you. (We kicked out Italy that tourney too hehehe)

Frankly, i havent seen much from Iran and Morocco, but Iran the best side from Asia and Morocco top 3 in Africa, this is the group of death for me.
And what you guys have discussed here in 50 pages hehehe you guys says Iran have better attacking players but Morocco have better defends players right? maybe im wrong now, but i think Iran defends better and Morocco attacking better. But like i said, i havent seen much.
U think you are gonna be satisfied with one point the first match or you think need 3 points against Morocco for have a chance to advance?

 

On paper, in terms of transfer market value, Morocco have much better players on defense. But you are right that as a team, Iran defends much better and more vigorously that Morocco (or practically any other side I know). Your impression in that regard is not off.

Morocco and Iran to me are comparable on offense, with Iran certainly having better center-forwards. However, since Morocco might be more adventurous tactically, they might appear to have a better offense. Regardless, Iran's offensive players are very good and our offense does bite. We can build up an attack quickly, very nicely, with class, and sometimes finish efficiently too. (We did miss quite a few chances in the qualifiers but overall I feel Iran's offensive class is impressive enough).

P.S.
I think realistically Iran will need 3 points against Morocco and vice versa. But this "conventional wisdom" was put on its head in the computer simulation I saw of this group, where Iran opened with a loss to Morocco and then incredibly beat Spain and Portugal (and then Russia) before going down on penalties against Argentina. In other words, anything is possible -- whether in a computer simulation or even in real life

 

Morocco have better players with bigger potential in every position on PAPER.

CV: Benatia (Juventus) Saiss (Wolverhampton) Feddal (Real Betis) Da Costa (Istanbul bashekrir)

L/R Backs: Hakimi (Real Madrid) Dirar (Fenerbache) Malcuit (Lille) Mendyl (Lille) Masina (Bologna)

Midfield; El Ahmadi (Feyenoord) Ziyech (Ajax) Belhanda (Galatasaray) Taarabt (Genoa)

Wingers: Boufal (Southampton) Harit (Shalke04) Amrabat (Alaves)

Strikers: Munir el Haddadi (if he is allowed to switch by FIFA) Boutaib, El Arabi

Morocco has hundreds of players on every postion who are even not selected but would be seen as absolute star olayers if they were Iranian; Carcela, El Kaddouri, Labyad, Taarabt etc.

The only position iran is of the same level is the #9 position. Iranians on this forum disrespect Morocco alot, Benatia, Ziyech and Harit are worth more than te entire Iran NT selection. Iran is not of the same level as Morocco. Sweden is comparable to Morocco but Iran not because Morocco dominates every position on PAPER except striker position.

 

Hoe is Irance defence better? What defenders do they have and what stikers where they facing? #9 of Uzbekistan?

Morocco has defenders in big european leagues and 1 on the best defenders in the world; Mehdi Benatia. Morocco quallified without conceding a single goal...

Ziyech 20 mil
Benatia 17 mil
Boufal 15 mil
Are worth more than Iran entire selection.
Please be realistic and dont think you have the same quality on paper.

 

Why do you lie?
In the video, you can see only two big scoring chances from the opponents.
One with Aubameyang and one with Gervinho in the last game.

Against Mali, they were already leading the score by two when they have a red card. The game was already over before the red card.

You're right about the inefficient aspect for Morocco but at least they can create opportunities.
Your games against Argentina & Nigeria was boring and you was lucky to not lose.
Even if they lost at least Morocco will create opportunities against Portugal & Spain. THEY can make a suprise but not you, you will never beat (or draw) 3 teams by creating you so few opportunities.

Yeah Uzbekistan lol who ended up behind Syria (who is I recall in civil war since 2011) are you serious???

There is only 4-5 "decent" teams in Asia. And none of them can be called big teams like Ivory Coast or Ghana.

You have the same number of qualified people as in Africa, it's a shame.
Especially that your system avatange the big teams of your continent. Two groups of 6 teams
and 2 teams who are directly qualified and the third who can also qualified its a joke.

Now look at what can happend in Africa :

2002 : In the same group but only one can qualify
1st Senegal (CAN 2002 finalist)
- Morocco
- Egypt (CAN 1998 winner)
- Algeria

2006 : In the same group but only one can qualify
1st Ivory Coast (CAN 2006 finalist)
- Cameroun (CAN 2000 & 2002 winner)
- Egypt (CAN 2006, 2008 & 2010 winner)
- Lybie
- Soudan
- Bénin

2014
The new test for qualified was a joke
So you can have in the last playoff game : Egypt vs Ghana and Senegal vs Ivoary Coast

2018 : In the same group but only one can qualify
1st Nigeria (CAN 2013 winner)
- Zambia (CAN 2012 winner)
- Cameroun (CAN 2017 winner)
- Algeria

We must not forget the fact that playing in Africa is difficult (bad football pitch, suspect referee, hot temperatures, ect)
And you seriously think that Iran could have gone into this kind of group?
LOL

I do not even know why I took the trouble to answer you, you live in another dimension or something...

 

LOL Iranians are truly a riot.
You qualify out of a conference that includes the likes of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, India and the Philippines. In most of these countries soccer is a second thought or civil war is rampant.
Also I'd add that in all likelihood Spain and Portugal will dominate throughly to win this group. All the passionate fans are hilarious.

 

I said I am tired of the Iran-Morocco arguments and read Salas mention (correctly) how every point has been made 60 times already! Then I see him encourage posters who want to again tread the same territory.

Instead of rehashing the issues, let me quote here from what I posted elsewhere when it comes to ranking of teams. Specifically, I was addressing ranking methodology and how ultimately the best methodology belong to ELO.

-----------
The other problem that exists [with ELO] that affects primarily the ranking of CAF teams is actually not a problem with any ranking, but the fact that none of CAF's teams are able to show the kind of consistency and record that keeps a good ranking. Everywhere else, good teams are able to maintain a relatively good record within their own confederation over the years and (overall) do relatively well in their friendlies against teams from other confederations. Their losses will be aberrations and might be explained by other factors. In CAF, that is often not the case. Nigeria fails to even qualify to 2 successive AFCON tournaments. Morocco, whose fans have begun annoying me greatly, produced excellent results in World cup qualifying but nonetheless has suffered 5 losses in 2017 alone (3 in competitive games against fellow CAF teams, namely losing to DR Congo and Egypt in the 2017 AFCON and to Cameroon in the 2019 ACON qualifiers). This same Morocco can be thankful their "bench" beat South Korea in a friendly; otherwise except for a win overly lowly Canada, since 2014 they have otherwise lost to practically every team outside of CAF they have faced, including losing to Russia, to Uruguay, Finland, Holland and only drawing Qatar and Albania!

 

Your point is that Morocco is what exactly? They will likely finish 3rd and speedily be out of the WC. However guess what, NO ONE cares.
Iran is awful. You have no-name players and qualified by beating irrelevant countries.
Get over yourself and stop posting intricate, ridiculous arguments talking about your wins in friendlies and how your anonymous players are stars. The best player on your team is a sub in RUSSIA. Another makes peanuts playing in Greece.

 

Btw Iranian fans. Have you ever asked yourself why NO ONE ever has anything flattering to say about your team and you have to research friendlies played in 1977 to support your position on why your nation is relevant to the sport?
Do you realize how irritating it is to hear post after post researching utter minutiae about some Iranian midfielder who plays in the Bulgarian 2nd Division and how under rated he is???

 

I'm not moroccan. I don't think they will pass the next round (Iran either). Because there are gaps in this team on some positions (doesn't have a decent left back, ect).
I was just answering at the other one who was lying and disrespectful about Africa. And i have seen some coments before also against portuguese who was crazy...

You need to stop with your FRIENDLY games, especially when Morocco was sick and has experienced a big crisis in their federation. I think they didn't play any game for one year... all this process was a recovery.

So the win for Morocco against South Korea or the win for Iran against Chili doesn't reveal anything.
There is a reason why we call these : FRIENDLY games, coaches do tests, it's to have rhythm, there is 6 substitutes, ect

For the CAN 2017 you forget to mention that some players was not there :
starters : Ziyech, Belhanda, Amrabat, Hakimi
bench players : Harit, Boufal

Beat Ivory Coast and make equal play against Egypt with all these absences its pretty impressiv for me.

Anyway you didn't answer me about how will do Iran in Africa.
African teams doesn't keep a good ranking because the competition is difficult :

7 good team with a top player :
- Egypt (with Salah)
- Senegal (with Mané)
- Nigeria (with Moses)
- Morocco (with Benatia)
- Algeria (with Mahrez)
- Ivory Coast (with Bailly)
- Gabon (with Aubameyang)

Other teams : Mali, Guinea, Ghana, Cameroun, Tunisia, Burkina, Cap Vert, Congo & RD Congo ...
have decent players mostly professionnal who plays in first division in Europe (Portugal, France, England, Netherlands, ect).

But with all with all these teams there; only 5 who will go to the WC, so its not about ranking...

In Asia there is only one good team (Japan) 4-5 decent teams (Iran, Australia, South Korea, China and Saudi Arabia?)

For the other teams (Ouzbekistan, Thailand, Syria, Irak, ect), i don't even know one player...

That's why in Asia it's always the saaaaame teams that go to the World Cup.

 

@goku

With respect to your comments putting down the AFC in comparison to CAF, please note the following in your calculus as well:

1- CAF teams that have ended up at the World Cup haven't produced such stellar results against their Asian opponents. Their head-to-head record became even with the AFC only after the 2014 World Cup, where 2 CAF teams beat 2 Asian teams with Iran and Nigeria ending in a draw. Before then, the head-to-head record even favored the AFC.

2- Besides the head-to-head results, it is also true that CAF teams don't rate nearly so highly compared to teams from the AFC by objective rankings such as ELO or FIFA. Indeed, under ELO, Iran ranks higher than any CAF side not just Morocco.

3- CAF may have greater parity and more teams of comparable strength than the AFC, but that doesn't change the strength of their top teams. Nor does having better individual talent make for having better teams necessarily. In this regard, I bet even Cameroon of World Cup 2014 had better talent on paper than many AFC teams, but they looked like the worst team in the tournament to me.

Ultimately, to rate the teams, we have the the two main ranking methodologies out there (FIFA and ELO) to help us in ranking teams, acknowledging neither is perfect. We have subjective ranking by respected football analysts who do power rankings of the World Cup finalists for respected sports publications, acknowledging that such opinions can differ as well. And then we have the loud and emphatic pronouncements on the subject by certain fans posting here on Bigsoccer who show no pretense of objectively at all. Forgive me for finding the latter the least convincing!


p.s.
While I am not going to take offense if someone rates CAF above the AFC (I do as well), I do take offense with the pretense that the gap is so wide and the differences so great. There is no support for that premise. Nothing except in the wishful thinking of CAF fans.

 

One last point: no single match, friendly or competitive, tells a story. Competitive matches are weighed far more heavily in everyone's rankings, but friendly games are given some weight as well. For teams from the AFC or CAF, who don't get to play quality opposition from other confederations but once every 4 years or so, the totality of their results in friendly matches is part of the equation to allow us to get some sense how they compare. It is the package, not any individual match, but I have a hard time accepting that any side which is truly anywhere near the class some want to pretend for Morocco, wouldn't be able to show some indications of it except in one single game against South Korea. The game against South Korea is touted as meaningful somehow by Moroccan fans, but their string of losses and draws in all their other friendly games (except against lowly Canada) are supposed to mean nothing. Conversely, while I don't think Iran beating Chile in a friendly means we rate close to Chile's level (if I did think so, I would rate Iran among the top 10-15 teams in the world), it still is true that I am not going to ignore the fact that we have only lost one game (to Sweden in 2015) in all the friendly matches that have tested Iran against non-Asian teams. All of that cannot be coincidence,especially since I have seen all these games and understand better what they showed.

 

I think that the teams who play less competitive matches may take their friendlies a little more seriously than say Italy or Germany who are known for saving their best for cup matches which is where you can see stuff like Iran beating Chile or Morocco beating SK. Less games should mean the players have more to prove

 

Don't know about South Korea/Morocco, but of course Chile isn't going to be nearly as excited about their match against Iran as we would. The result between Iran and Chile didn't prove Iran is better or even equal to Chile. But even factoring in the lesser motivation, the fact that such teams would engage in experimentation, and everything else, a side that rates as low as some here pretend would not be able to pull off a consistent set of results in its friendlies like Iran. It is not one match to me. It is the whole picture and many of the matches involved teams that were playing at home and who had as much or more riding in the game compared to Iran.

Besides, while teams like Germany might tank a game or two in friendlies, their overall results even in such friendly games isn't going to be all that different than their results in competitive matches. Indeed, as we saw in the Confederations Cup, the Germans can win even without their best players and even when they don't take things all that seriously. The fact is a truly strong side will not go through a string of losses and draws (with a win or 2) even in friendlies.

The only thing that makes me not use Morocco's poor record in friendlies against them as much is this: Morocco's team isn't really a straight progression or evolution of the home based talent that might have graduated to play in foreign leagues. It is instead a side that is simply picked out from among players of Moroccan origin playing in Europe. For them, their quality (and weakness) will ultimately be similar to having an "all-star" team. The connection between one XI and the other XI (unless the players are almost exactly the same) isn't nearly as straight forward as a group of players who have been picked from the same football culture and league (even if some of them have since moved to other leagues).

 

Its better to end the discussion because we are muslim brothers <3 Morocco <3 Iran.

I also want to apologize to Iranians on this forum.

May the best team win in Russia!

 

I hope you are not going to take anything personal from the arguments either. We both want to give the best presentation of our teams but ultimately they will have to show their stuff on the pitch. As you said, my the best team win in Russia and good luck against the other teams.

 

While I dislike Tunisia for footballing reasons only and Saudi Arabia for a whole lot of reasons, I would have passionately supported Morocco as one of my few favourites in this World Cup, had they not been in the same group as us.

My favourite African teams have always been Morocco, Algeria and Egypt in that order. Morocco of 1998 was one of my all-time favourite World Cup teams. They should had made it far that year, were it not for the silly goalkeeping mistakes and just being plain unlucky that Brazil went into the Norway match already qualified for the next round. I also loved Cameroon of 1990, Senegal of 2002, and Algeria of 2014. But Morroco of 1998 was my all-time favorite African team.

 

What you don't understand about Morocco is that they are improving very much by each game.

If you look at the beginning of the WCQ they drew AT HOME against a weaker on paper Ivory Coast team, then in the final match they beat AWAY FROM HOME a stronger on paper Ivory Coast team 2-0.

We also see them beating Gabon 3-0 and Mali 6-0, in their recent matches, while earlier in the campaign they struggled to score goals.

The reference to South Korea is because that is their most recent friendly since the team has vastly improved.

International football is all about current form, and Morocco has gone from an above average CAF side to basically a top 5 CAF side in the span of about half a year. They've always had the talent, but they've never quite been able to get it all together.

Another factor is their coach Herve Renard, who may very well be the best coach to ever coach in the African game. He first won the ANC with a very average Zambia side, beating a highly ranked Ivory Coast in the final, then 2 years later he took over Ivory Coast and again won the ANC with them, breaking their long held jinx of success at the ANC. Now he took over Morocco and beat out the highly fancied Ivory Coast to the WC ticket, even after a poor start.

Herve Renard is a serious coach not to be messed with, and that is another reason I can see Morocco doing something good at the WC.

Morocco haven't played many friendlies since they have gone up in form, pretty much a 2-1 loss to Holland and the 3-1 victory over South Korea. Even the Holland game, Morocco has much improved from then.

I wouldn't really look to much into Morocco's past record as I've stated they are a much different team today than back then, and also the team that played in the ANC 2017 was missing a whole host of players, yet they still managed to upset CIV and give silver medalist Egypt a pretty much even game.

If you look at their recent matches it is a very steep trajectory upwards.

Nov 11 2017 Ivory Coast 0 v Morocco 2 WCQ
Oct 10 2017 Morocco 3 v South Korea 1 FRI
Oct 7 2017 Morocco 3 v Gabon 0 WCQ
Sep 5 2017 Mali 0 v Morocco 0 WCQ
Sep 1 2017 Morocco 6 v Mali 0 WCQ

Now if you look at the period before this going back to last summer, Morocco lost against both Holland and Cameroon, but it is really this post Summer period where they have really started to come together as a unit and start to play to their potential.

They have games in march against Serbia and Uzbekistan, so I think the Serbia match will provide some insight into how good they are.

 

I realize Morocco looks like a team that is fast improving. Which is why I have rated them as a potential team to surprise in Russia. However, at the end of the day, I do want to see how Morocco does in its upcoming friendlies and assess their quality from an overall perspective that doesn't require me to merely extrapolate from what they have done more recently against (rather inconsistent) CAF teams which have often (not always) proven less than the sum of their parts.

The game against Uzbekistan will be quite interesting to me because I rate Uzbekistan as a top 2nd tier side in the AFC and, although this will be merely a friendly, it will give me the most direct basis for a comparison. For Morocco to perform as well as Iran (which is around the level I rate Morocco) they will have to have a comfortable win against Uzbekistan. Just as Iran had. Anything less, and that will merely bring down Morocco's rating in my mind. If Morocco rates above Iran and is to show that against the Uzbeks, they will need to basically do better (not just in terms of results but the overall sense from the match) than Iran did against the Uzbeks. For instance, in terms of results, Morocco's (bench) did better against South Korea winning 3:1. Honestly, in terms of class and performance, however, it wasn't even close. Iran truly outclassed South Korea at home when we won 1:0 and when both sides had a lot riding on that game. South Korea couldn't even threaten our goal once despite trailing most of the game, while Iran could have scored additional goals throughout the match carving out 4-5 excellent scoring chances besides our goal. That wasn't how their game against Morocco looked to me and if I recall correctly, South Korea was doing better than Morocco when Morocco scored their first goal.

Anyway, and this goes without saying, ultimately the real tests for all these teams comes at the time of the World Cup and friendly matches are friendlies where the result isn't the first thing that matters. But for a side like Morocco which had an excellent series of results in its qualifying campaign in CAF but otherwise looking more broadly does not have any results that would spin heads, every match they play will count in creating expectations and impressions about them.

 

Been away for a while.

1) LMAO at the dude who thinks Canada can beat Iran. I can pick a midtable Iran Pro League team that would beat Canada 4 out of 5.

2) The only reason people think Honduras/Panama are any good is because they are in a Confederation with the US/Mexico. These two teams have huge media following that hype their opponents.

3) #2 is an example of arrogance of those who think if they dont know/have not heard of something it must suck. See Australia handle Honduras easily even on Honduras's cow pasture of a field. Then see them struggle against Syria/UAE/Saudi.

4) The individual comparison of player to player on transfermarket? These are one off games. Thats not how things will exclusively go. See Pouladi(net worth of 200k) shut down Victor Moses/Emmenike/Amoebi by himself. See Montazeri shut down Di Maria. Di Maria huffed and puffed and couldnt do anything against a RB/CB with 338x less value.

5) Upsets happen weekly, even in massive quality differences like League Two vs Premier League in FA cup. Thats a much bigger quality gap than what we have in this underrated Group B.