At the end of the day, all that matters is the 3 points for Portugal. Moral victories don't get you any points.
Eighty minutes until the moment we haves been waiting for. Despite all the things everyone keeps telling about our slim chances tonight (including me!), deep down I feel like something good is about to happen tonight. Could we be witnessing history in the making? We have all got our fingers crossed for team melli. No matter what, we are proud of our boys. Come on boys, lets make some history❤❤❤❤
If you thought the #MEX fans were crazy, ladies and gentlemen I give you #IRN fans.. (and yes I was live!) #worldcup pic.twitter.com/wKxa08SweL— Kelly Somers (@KellySomers) June 20, 2018
World Cups are supposed to be like this: big teams scraping victories, small teams defending well and dangerous in the counter and after they go down. We already saw France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil, wasting a lot of energy to get measly results (or no result at all in the case of Germany, a tight win in the case of France). Now they're going for the slow, methodical, energy-saving approach. That's typical for tournament mode. If the Russians keep playing to destroy their opponents, eventually they're going to get muscular problems and worse.
Although I am crying right now. But I really am proud. So proud of our boys and the great Carlos Queiroz. Looking forward for the next match. We still have our hopes high. Thank you to every single one of our boyss
To be honest, Iran looked pretty decent versus Spain. The first half was pure bunkering and time wasting but in the second half Iran attacked more and looked good at times, and was close to score a couple of times, too. You have some good strickers there and can move the ball against a dangerous team like Spain. I dont think Portugal (who looked weak today) should underestimate this Iranian team.
It was really frustrating today. Completly dominating the game but not scoring is just sad. I'm proud of how our team played but also think that Renard made mistakes against Iran. Amrabat on the right wing like today would have been the better choice. Anyways, I hope we will leave the tournament with at least one point against Spain.
Iran 🇮🇷 are what the World Cup is all about pride, passion and drive⚽️ Spain 🇪🇸 got lucky ⚽️ Iran 🇮🇷 can beat the Portugal one man band ⚽️ Queiroz against his old team... great game in prospect! Come on Iran 🇮🇷— Chris Sutton (@chris_sutton73) June 20, 2018
I have to obviously start off by saying, Morocco played so well. If lady luck was in a different mood today Morocco would have came out with the 3 points. Portugal played poorly all around. This was the worst midfield performance Portugal has ever displayed in my memory. I'm really unsure about what the plan for this game was, unless Santos told the boys to just keep all their tricks in their bags after the early goal and grind the match out.
Don't matter how Portugal plays we will just keep winning until we take this Cup like we did at euro 16 Siiiuuuuuuu!!!
Terrific effort from Iran vs Spain. Pre-tournament we heard much of jahanbaksh and azmoon - they've been invisible and completely unimpressive. I thought the discipline and commitment shown by your Iranian based players, especially in defense was commendable. For Portugal, I don't think the Morocco match is something to panic over. Morocco is a strong team and showed incredible ability in the midfield. I'd add that sitting on a 1 goal lead at a WC in the second half is understandable.
The thing with Azmoun is that he needs service to be effective and the way Iran played against Spain, he wasn't going to get much of it. That said, he was decent in holding up the ball and winning physical duels with the Spanish. Hopefully he can build on that against Portugal. As for Jahanbakhsh, Queiroz benched him for this game (I think it was because of the yellow) and he didn't get to do much when he came on. I am sure Queiroz wanted to make sure he can play against Portugal so he didn't risk him getting a suspension for that game. Hopefully Iran can build on the Spain game against Portugal. They played a good compact game and responded well to both Spain's goal (as shitty as it was) and the disallowed equalizer, showing that they've developed some mental strength too. Monday should be an exciting game.
When I was watching this, I couldn’t help but laugh, thinking of the pages after pages of arguments by certain posters about how the “semi-pro” Iranian forwards would get past the likes of Benatia, Ramos, Pique and Pepe... 1009525846091104256 is not a valid tweet id 1009544943940009984 is not a valid tweet id 1009522045904936960 is not a valid tweet id
First off, congrats to Spain and their supporters. Second, great job TM!!!!!!! You all played with heart and you didn't give me too many heart attacks! All you did was cause me to leap for joy and high five my fellow Iranians at a bar (at a party hosted by Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian) only to see me sulk! But seriously NO Mehdi Taremi against Portugal. You missed some EASY chances! And you screwed up Pique getting nutmegged!
Honest question: what's up with Reza? I honestly don't follow Iran that closely, but remember him being their go-to forward a couple years ago...
Female fans were allowed into Tehran’s Azadi stadium for the first time since 1979 today to watch Iran vs. Spain 🙌🇮🇷 pic.twitter.com/tryisdgwQm— B/R Football (@brfootball) June 20, 2018