WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

Often lol

Combine them sentences with these pictures to get a better idea of what he was referring to :




Besides, shouldn't you be in the Group D thread?

OT:



2018 will be CR7 last real chance at a World Cup. Like a lion, he will lead his team to victory, like he always has. There isn't a chance in hell that he would let small teams like Iran and Morocco ruin his teams chances of having a good, deep run.

Spain is the only real threat. So the group is very easy to predict, probably end up looking something like this

Portugal 7pts (ahead on goal diff)
Spain 7pts
Morocco 3pts
Iran 0pts

 

Makes sense. That's what happens when you have the best league in the world. Plenty of international attention and fans.

 

This is going to give this thread a little calma

SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

 

Some facts about Iran at the World Cup:

- Iran record at the World Cup from 12 Games Played is: 1 win, 3 draws, and 8 losses. In this regard, Iran has never gone pointless in any World Cup and it has never advanced from its group either. Iran's best finish within its group at the World Cup was in 1998, when Iran finished 3rd in its group. In every other World Cup, Iran's record has been 1 draw and 2 losses and Iran has finished 4th in its group.
-Iran's best finish in the overall ranking table after the World Cup was 14th place in 1978, when we had only 16 teams qualify to the World Cup. Iran's worst finish in this regard was in 2014 when Iran finished 28th. Iran finished 20th in 1998 and 25th in 2006.
-Iran's past results against teams from UEFA at the World Cup has not been encouraging: 0 wins, 1 draw, and 5 losses. In the 2 games we have had against CAF teams, Iran's record is 2 draws, no wins and no losses.
-Iran lost by 3 goal margins in the 1978 World Cup to Holland (3:0) and Peru (4:1), where we also conceded a record 4 penalties at the group stage against these teams. Those are Iran's worse losses at the World Cup. All of our other losses have been either with a 1 goal margin (Argentina, Yugoslavia) or 2 goal margins (2:0 to Germany, 2:0 to Portugal, 3:1 to Mexico and 3:1 to Bosnia).
- Until Iran's last World Cup match in 2014 against Bosnia, Iran had gone through 8 World Cup matches without trailing at the end of the first half. In both World Cup 1998 and World Cup 2006, Iran did not trail any of its opponents at halftime and the games it lost, it lost in the 2nd half. In World Cup 2014, that was the case as well until the Bosnia match, the only game after the 1978 World Cup where Iran trailed at halftime.

 

Based on what I posted above, if Iran were to repeat and replicate its past World Cup record, the most likely outcomes for Iran would be:
- draw against Morocco and losses against Spain and Portugal. Iran would finish 4th in its group, meaning Morocco would probably grab a result against either Portugal or Spain. Although as we saw with Nigeria in World Cup 2014 where despite their draw with Iran they managed to advance, it is also possible for Morocco to leapfrog Portugal or Spain and advance even if they fail to beat Iran.*
- neither Spain nor Portugal will have an easy time breaking down Iran and both those games would be level (most likely scoreless) at halftime. Iran would end up losing those games either by 1 goal or 2 goals.

That is how it would be if the past repeated itself again. But I am not predicting that the past will repeat itself.
_________________________
*
Of course, I am hoping for Iran to do much better, but if 2014 (which was the only other World Cup where Iran opened against a CAF side) repeats itself, this is what will happen: Iran would get a draw against Morocco as it did against Nigeria and lose a hard fought game against the group favorites, Spain. Portugal would lose to Spain and Morocco and be eliminated by the time we meet them, while Iran would still have a chance to advance if we can beat Portugal. Then the game against Portugal could be like the game against Bosnia, which Iran lost 3:1.

 

Well....For there to be drama, there has to be debate.

.....My friend, there is no debate. That's not the presenters fault. We should fault CR7 for being so dominant.

 

lol who takes ballon dor seriously these days? its a marketing thing for F$FA. nobody will forget when sneijder was robbed. and why was it awarded now? december is still not over.

cristiano ronaldo's team did better, but messi was the better player in 2017. last i checked this is supposed to be an individual award, yet it gives points based on your teammates performance. not really rational.

the stats dont lie:

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/news/ba...no-ronaldo-v-lionel-messi-who-had-better-year

but cristiano is a selfish player: he only performs based on what he wants. for example, he wanted to break CL scoring record so he played well in CL, so he purposely saved himself for CL which is why he only scored something like 2 in 10 in la liga. and as someone said, this is his last chance to do something at the world cup, so he will try his best at the world cup. we have the ability to shut him down, but then that andre silva guy will be open. and since ronaldo actually wants portugal to go far this time over personal stats, he might even pass the ball to open teammates and not cry if someone other than him scores. its gonna be a tough game.

 

yea its included in the highlights. the Iranian defender mistook a whistle from the crowd as the refs and picked up the ball inside the box. thats why i like teams like denmark because they are fair, but where we play in AFC, teams like china or the arab teams are savages when it comes to fair play: they simply dont have it in their vocabulary; such a concept is unfathomable to them.

 

But Ronaldo now has 5 too. So I dont think he will be crying at all.

 

Portugal has some revenge to enact on Spain 2010 and 2012 really burn and

 

I'm sure there's a Messi v Ronaldo thread somewhere on this website I'm not sure what an Argentinian player has to do with World Cup 2018 group B.

It's fine to post about Ronaldo considering his team is in this group.

Iran has avoided playing any decent teams in friendlies as a policy. This says to me they are too scared to play any decent teams. This will soon be non issue considering they play 2 world class teams in the first two games of the World Cup.

 

I'm fine with it. There is still half a way to go until the tournament gets underway. It's inevitable that other details will be brought up.

 

#hesfinished

 

Well one thing is for sure Portugal will have no problems politically going into the WC as you probably know Portugal has been fantastic on the political front the last couple of years and not bad at all on the field either. Still supporting my Moroccan and Iranian friends over Spain. Btw Barça over Real any day. Hope you finish last

 

How would I know that? I don't follow Portugal on much of anything.

 

While an exaggeration, you are partly right that Queiroz has in the past not shown any enthusiasm for scheduling tough friendly games for Iran. But what you say is an exaggeration because Iran has played some "decent" sides in friendlies nonetheless. Since World Cup 2014, Iran has played Sweden in Sweden (we lost), Chile in neutral venue in Europe (we won), Montenegro in Montenegro when they were hopeful of making the play offs in European qualifiers in 2nd place in their group (we won), as well as hosts Russia recently in a friendly in Russia (draw). Besides these non-Asian sides (among some others who could rate as decent as well), Iran has also played decent Asian teams like Japan (draw) and South Korea (we won) in friendly matches (and, of course, the latter in World Cup qualifiers as well).

 

We share a peninsula.

 

There are reports that Algeria, which is slated to play a friendly against Iran, is also finalizing arrangements to play a friendly against Portugal. Indeed, the Iranian media report I read suggested Algeria's friendly with Portugal will be before their friendly match against Iran in early June.

 

Others who may be following the issue more closely can correct me, but my understanding is that Iran will play a total of 8 friendly matches to prepare for the World Cup. Of these, it has already played 4 before the draw, against Togo (2:0 Iran win at home), at Russia (1:1 draw), Panama (2:1 Iran win in Austria) and Venezuela (1:0 Iran win in Holland). The match against Algeria in Tehran for early June 2018 before heading to the World Cup is also confirmed. That is in all likelihood intended as something like a full squad friendly match for Iran. I understand we will also play a couple of friendlies against sides intended to simulate Portugal and Spain in March, although the opponents haven't been identified and we may end up with something significantly different than those 2. We will also play a friendly afterwards in late March against what is likely an Asian team. The real purpose of playing an Asian side isn't clear, except it seems the match will take place at an inopportune time in the calendar and will likely test those who are vying and competing for a roster spot on the bench.

 

I do not think this is death group. The overall strength of Spain and Portugal is relatively strong.Although Iran is very tough to play.