Yeah, broken toe, coming back early April. Pepe at this point in time could be as important to Portugal as CR7.
Honestly, i would even argue a healthy in-form Pepe is more important to the success of Portugal at this exact moment then Ronaldo.. just given the sudden lack of CB's.. and the vast number of offensive minded players coming up.
Boussoufa? He is an indispensable player for this Morocco team along with Benatia. His performance has been consistently outstanding ever since Renard took the team, and he is also the second captain (after Benatia). He is a number 10 and has been in all of his clubs but Renard plays him as a defensive midfielder next to El Ahmadi with the perk that he can control our rhythm and deliver great assists after recovering the ball. During WC qualifications it was a joy to watch this 1.63cm guy get the ball from 1.90cm forwards. When you will see Morocco play you will understand how important he is to the team. He is towards the end of his career but he actually was a pretty trendy player just a few years ago. He signed for Lokomotiv Moscow back in 2013 for 15 million dollars and that was before the current ridiculous inflation of prices. In my opinion he is a much better value at this particular moment than any of the other young defensive midfielders not only in terms of tactical intelligence but also in terms of experience and fighting spirit, which are exactly the things that we lacked the most in the past 15 horrible years..
Ziyech is very good but if you want spectacular, you should check out Harit, Belhanda, Boufal or Taarabt. Check out this goal out for instance: It's cracks me up to see the two players collide in 0.07 hahahah
I agree with you, but for the sake of most people, if they read something like that it doesn't seem to make sense. Those of us that know Portugal well, know that with the current circumstances, Pepe is irreplaceable. Also I have seen Portugal play without Ronaldo and without Pepe, always looked worse when Pepe wasn't playing.
Iran has not yet announced its roster for the Tunisia match. Tunisia's roster, however, has been announced. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/43376155
⚠ OFICIAL | Lista de @julenlopetegui para los próximos partidos contra @DFB_Team y @Argentina Síguelo en #Periscope 📺 https://t.co/OkogkaAzQl pic.twitter.com/SRWwKseTOE— Selección Española Masculina de Fútbol (@SEFutbol) March 16, 2018
Iran can be a surprise team in this World Cup. But I'm still hesitant to back them to go out of this very hard group. In my opinion there are three mosaic pieces they need in order to produce a successful showing and finally get out of the group for the first time. 1) Keep up the high spirit in the camp. That includes the full support of federation, media and all the relevant persons involved in Iranian Football. Iran has also to maintain its strong performances and results in friendlies to keep the morale high and spirit intact. 2) A reliable and solid goalkeeper. Iran's defense and more importantly whole team (except their main striker Azmoun) will defend with everything they have to prevent the opponents from too many clear cut chances. In case the defense leak balls here and there they need a goalkeeper who is able to make some major saves. It is not clear until now who will start as their starting goalkeeper. It seems the next friendlies will determine who stands between the post. 3) A holding midfielder. They have Dejagah playing the CAM role. But he is injured at the moment. It is expected that he returns maybe in May but in case he doesn't Iran will have to look for another player who is able to hold the ball and cool down the game when they get under heavy pressure. There's also Shojaei from AEK Athens, but he wasn't called up the last matches. I think they badly need at least one of either as other players don't seem to have that ability and the calmness on the ball to do this job.
I don't think it would be worth your time. It is halftime; Iran is leading 3:0 and besides the goals, Iran has hit the post 2-3 times while the other side has been fumbling around and hasn't had a single shot on our goal. I don't know anything about Siera Leone (who are ranked 97th) but I suspect this isn't their real team anyway. Our side is entirely experimental as well and most of the guys playing won't be in our roster or, the few who will be in the final roster, will mostly at best be sitting on the bench in Russia. Iran's lineup in the 1st half that just concluded: Lak (GK) - Rezaeian, Khanzadeh, Cheshmi, Aghaie, Karimi, Ebrahimi, Abdollahzadeh, Noorafkan, Gholizadeh, Rezaei.
As others have mentioned, hopefully Dejagah will be ready and fit by the time of the World Cup. But I believe Iran will call up Shojaie, although that isn't clear yet. As for a real "holding midfielder", or "d-mid", Iran's first choice in that regard is Ezatolahi but he will miss our match against Morocco due to his red card from the S.Korea match. In this area, I think Iran is thin and I am not entirely convinced about Ezatolahi's backups. In goal, I like Beiranvand for his restarts with his hands. His ability in that regard is very unique. Besides Beiranvand, who started for us in the qualifiers, I am favorably impressed by Esteghlals goalie, Hosseini and I hope to see him get some playing time in our friendlies. He was warming up and might come in the 2nd half against Seira Leone, but even if he suits up, I doubt the Sierra Leone side I saw in the first half would test him at all.
The game ended 4:0 and Sierra Leone looked slightly better in the 2nd half, having a nice long range shot that Hosseini (who was subbed in the 2nd half for Iran in goal) had to save and they also created something from a freekick that forced another save by Hosseini. Whether to start Ghafouri (who has done very well with Esteghlal this season) as our right fullback or Rezaeian (who hasn't done all that well in Beligum) will be a tough call. I don't think this match decided the issue as Rezaeian was actually pretty good in the first half when he played, while Ghafouri was okay but not at his best.
Talking earlier about our holding mids/d-mids, it is obvious Carlos Queiroz is trying to test as many players for that post as possible. There were 6-7 different players used today who are typically d-mids and who played different positions. It will be interesting to see who Queiroz picks to start in place of Ezatolahi against Morocco.
I am curious who Iran will field against Tunisia? My own preference would be something like the following - with the players in parenthesis to be used as subs: Beiranvand (Hosseini) -- Ghafouri (Rezaeian), Hosseini, Pouraliganji, Mohammadi - Ezatolahi (Noorafkan*), Haj Safie (Gholizadeh*) - Jahanbakhsh, Shojaie, Taremi (Ghoddos) - Azmoun (Ansarifard). *Although both Noorafkan and Gholizadeh earned their first caps today, I liked what I saw and with Ezatolahi suspended in the first match (against Morocco), like to see more of them. I am personally not entirely sold on either Ebrahimi or Karimi but they might end up being our best choices anyway.
Tunisia is starting to look decent with their new additions. I honestly don't think that Iran can win there. If you guys win there, that would be kind of impressive. A draw would be a good result.
Although I don't have a dog in this fight this time around, I am pretty intrigued by this group...would not be surprised if every team goes 1-1-1 or maybe even Spain and Portugal come out with two wins, Iran with one and Morocco coming up with one as well...this group could be scary...
I doubt Iran will lose to Tunisia but a draw is quite likely. In any case, I will be curious to see that match. But as I have said: I am almost equally curious to see Morocco against the Serbs and, to a lesser extent, Uzbekistan. Until I see those games, Morocco poses more questions in my mind than answers.
Serbia is a legit team with lots of depth and players at the highest level (Manchester United, Lazio, Roma, Schalke etc) so it's going to be a good test. Uzbekistan will be fun especially at home in Casablanca. I have a good feeling about both games. I honestly don't see Morocco suddenly losing the grinta that they showed last fall.