WC 2018 Group B: Spain Portugal Iran Morocco

The 11 players that Tunisia will start against Iran. The new French born players, including Benalouane and Ellyes Skhiri, are included in their lineup.

Farouk Ben Mustapha
Yohan Benalouane
Dylan Bronn
Yassine Meriah
Ali Maâloul
Ellyes Skhiri
Mohamed Amine Ben Amor
Ferjani Sassi
Saîf-Eddine Khaoui
Wahbi Khazri
Naïm Sliti

 

Weird how we are fielding such experimental team against the best CAF opponent we will face in these friendlies

 

I just don’t understand the rational of starting the likes of Khanzadeh, Cheshmi, Karimi who probably won’t get much, if any, playing time during the World Cup. It’s not like we have a dozen more quality friendly matches lined up and we can afford to experiment at this stage against a quality side like Tunisia...

 

Iran will lose this match 2-0. Tunisia is a good team and using an experimental line up against Tunisia is not wise for Iranian manager.

It seems entire Iranian defense line and forwards have been replaced with subs.

 

I don't think Iran will lose but this is a weird choice and lineup by Queiroz. My guess is that he decided if he can't have 4 of his first choice players due to injury, he will field an experimental side altogether so that if we don't get a good result, it won't affect the morale of the team as much. Otherwise, I am not sure what justification is there for fielding a side that looks a lot more like the one we fielded against the tourists from Sierra Leone than what we have fielded in any serious games?

 

Another reason why Iran might be using this lineup is that Queiroz doesn't want Morocco to learn too much about Iran's team and tactics observing this game.

 

I always thought the main purpose of this international break was to test the fringe players. These are the last friendlies until the squads must be announced.

So makes sense to me.

 

This is much MUCH bigger than football, still no leader of Generalitat, still political prisoners in jail or in exile, still the cloud of 155...against that a application group, which almost never talks about politics, I wonder why!* Everyone is *friendly* when they are earning millions and have fame while leaving politics-economics-philosophy...aside. Quite frankly this is just a elite group doing a circle jerk while patting themselves on the back, almost as bad as taking actors who basically *lie* for a living seriously.

 

I am ok with Iran being slightly experimental in friendlies. Honestly Cheshmi is our future defensively besides PAG...

My concern is we need to figure out a DM combo for Morocco with Ezzatollahi suspended

 

Portugal vs Egypt

1928 Egypt 2 Portugal 1
1955 Egypt 0 Portugal 4
2005 Egypt 0 Portugal 2

Only the fourth ever meeting.

 

Perhaps you're right.

But my point is...
https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/wc...gal-iran-morocco.2079283/page-6#post-36127967

I know you're hoping it happens.
I know you want it to happen.
But it ain't happening.
The only reference to it we've seen on the pitch so far was Guardiola wearing a yellow ribbon during some cup final in England a few weeks ago. And Pep is not part of the Spain team.

I reiterate...

 

Let’s go Iran!

 

It would obviously further the other 3 teams in the group, but Portugal actually won a tournament so I can die happily in that aspect (though a WC would be a cherry on top). Spain hás won the Euro and the WC so you go to the back of the line in my book as far as the group is concerned. It is not like I Will cry if Spain gets past the group stage which is very likely to happen. Pep is smart and hás balls even if you disagree with him (unlike many others). In my opinion the Catalan independence movement vs PP-PSOE... is in a bit of a deadlock at the moment so probably Will have little impact on the WC but things could change

 

Portugal 11 vs Egypt

Eis o onze: Rui Patrício; Cédric, Bruno Alves, Rolando e Raphael Guerreiro; Bernardo Silva, Rúben Neves, João Moutinho e João Mário; André Silva e Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

Our B team doing alright so far, I hope we see some first team subs in the 2nd half. I want Ghoddos and Jahanbakhsh, they will easily trouble Tunisia

 

Egypt 11 - Portugal

Onze do Egito: El Shenawy; Ahmed Fathi, Gabr, Hegazi e Abdel Shafy; Hamed, Elneny, Abdallah Said, Trezeguet; Salah e Hassan.

 

I don't want Jahanbakhsh to come into this game. The field conditions are terrible given the rain and water soaked pitch, raising the chance of injury. And Jahanbakhsh in particular is someone I want injury free.

But I agree we did okay despite the experimental lineup: we started poorly and the first 15 minutes were bad. But afterwards Iran did alright and was clearly robbed of a 100% penalty. No doubt that was a penalty. No one could make any sort of a case it wasn't and the Egyptian referee was simply favoring the home side by closing his eyes on that penalty. And we had some other chances.

Besides the pitch, the other thing that I haven't like is the errand passes by the likes of Khanzadeh and Cheshmi. While they have not been bad in doing their defensive duties for the most part, they have committed some really stupid mistakes that could have clearly cost us dearly. This clearly isn't the almost robotic, mistake free, defense we see from Iran usually.

The players I like to see come in would be the likes of Ghoddos, Omid Ebrahimi and Montazeri.

 

SPAIN:
De Gea, Carvajal, Piqué, Ramos, Jordi Alba, Koke, Iniesta, Thiago, Isco, Silva, Rodrigo
The team will wear black armbands in honor of Santiago Cañizares' 5 year old son who passed away following a battle with cancer.

GERMANY:
ter Stegen, Kimmich, Boateng, Hummels, Hector, Khedira, Kroos, Özil, Draxler, Müller, Werner

 

I cheer for Spain to win.

 

Tunisia ended Iran's unbeaten streak, winning 1:0. They were better than Iran in the 2nd half even if, overall, considering the penalty that was denied to Iran, a draw would have been a fairer result.

Iran brought in Ghoddos for Shojaie, Ebrahimi for Karimi, and Montazeri for Khanzadeh in the 2nd half. After Iran fell behind, the last 10 minutes, we brought in Jahanbakhsh to change things around, but it was too little too late. Kaveh Rezaei also came in for Ansarifard.

The goal scored by Tunisia was an own goal by Milad Mohammadi, our veteran left fullback. But it wasn't really his fault: Beiranvand did well to deflect a shot from close range, and the deflection hit Mohammadi and went into our net.

 

In other games in this group, I heard Morocco is beating Serbia 1:0 (Hakim Ziyesh). And last I checked, Spain was leading Germany 1:0 as well.

 

Morocco - Serbia 2-1 at half time.
A very open and entertaining match. Although the defence is a worrying me a bit. Da Costa is playing instead of Saiss.

 

My prediction for Tunisia Iran