Sometimes, reporters can sound greater alarms than warranted. Dejagah is definitely out and Pouraliganji has been injured for a few weeks and hasn't been playing due to injury. I thought his inclusion in the roster indicated he was fit enough to possibly play. But while I know Taremi also returned home early due to injury, I don't think his injury is serious and had not read anything about Sardar Azmoun being injured. Anyway, I certainly hope neither Iran nor our opponents are unduly affected by any injuries.
By the way Uzbekistan will play Senegal in Casablanca, Morocco on Friday. Any news by Adidas on the Iran kits? Seems like Adidas don't consider Morocco and Iran as their customers.
I'm gonna give my predictions too : Tunisia - Iran 0-0 Iran - Algeria 1-0 Morocco - Serbia 1-1 Morocco - Uzbekistan 4-0 Portugal - Egypt 2-1 Portugal - Netherland 2-2
Bono, Yassin Ayoub, and Ait Bennasser are also injured and went back to their clubs. I guess Renard is not going to be able to try Ait Benasser and Yassin Ayoub during the Uzbekistan game (although he can still try Sofyan Amrabat). He is also not going to be able to give Bono a chance.. I hope we won't have as many injuries as now during the world cup. We are still too light in the Left Back position, and Mendyl is too young and doesn't play much with Lille. I don't know what they are waiting for to fill that void.
Yes very disappointing. I'm not convinced with Sofian Amrabat, I would prefer Said of Wydad. And yes the left back is a real concern for morocco team, I can't understand how we can't find any good player in that position in the moroccan league.
Just writing my support for Morroco against the USA/Canada/México option for the 2026 WC that Will be decided on the 13 June. Been wanting to visit Morroco for a long time.Hopefully the fifth time Will be the sucessful one. Good luck my fellow Africans.
Morocco suggested to Portugal and Spain to co-host the event, but they declined. But I think it will have a good impact on tourism in South Spain and Portugal as well.
Yes, FIFA declined as we are not from the Same continent which complicates the continent factor-criteria which is used formally or informally to choose a candidate, the other bid is North American, pity, as it would of been an excellent choice. It would have also hopefully heeled some historical injuries and propel greater conections between us three and África/Europe in the future,including getting North African states into a extended EU, a chance missed.
Mehdi Taremi was just officially ruled out for tomorrow’s match. Sardar Azmoun is still doubtful, but was training with the team today. So officially, Dejagah-PAG-Taremi trio are out, Azmoun still day to day. They’re all gonna remain with the national team though for close monitoring, team spirit, and tactical/theory sessions.
All these are important players for Iran, but while Dejagah's absence is no surprise, and I knew Pouraliganji might not make it either, I was hoping Taremi would at least be able to play for us. I consider him even more influential for Iran than Azmoun, who in any case I hope will be able to play tomorrow. What Iran misses without the likes PAG, Taremi and Dejagah is a good bit of its muscle and physical presence. But for this friendly, we still have enough depth for me to keep with my earlier prediction when it comes to the outcome of the match.
@Sumol @JoseEmidio Selected quotes from Gerard Piqué's article in The Players' Tribune that was posted today. full article "Everybody knows that footballers have text groups on WhatsApp. I started a special group for some of the guys on the Spanish national team who play for Real Madrid and Barcelona. All we do in that group is talk sh*t to one another about Barça and Real! We’re just like little kids. I even made a special name for the group. It’s called: CONGRATULATIONS." "I can joke around with those guys, because they are my brothers on the Spanish national team. We might hate each other’s clubs, but we are all playing for the same country, with the same dream, and that’s something that I’m very, very proud of. I’m extremely proud to wear the badge every four years at the World Cup. Maybe that will surprise some people." "They say the national team is in turmoil because of political differences. In truth, we almost never talk about politics. I’m too busy telling the Real guys that they’re f**ked in the league, and they’re too busy talking to me about refereeing conspiracies!"
In the pre-match press conference in Tunisia, Queiroz mentioned that Iran won't have 4 of its players available against Tunisia, which would presumably refer to Azmoun, Taremi, Pouraliganji and Dejagah. The lineup that Iranian papers are speculating will be used against Tunisia is as follows: Beiranvand - Rezaeian, Montazeri, Hosseini, Mohammadi - Eztatolahi, Haj Safie - Jahanbakhsh, Shojaie, Amiri - Ansarifard This lineup looks fine in the absence of the 4 players being mentioned, but I would like to see Ghoddos as some point coming into the game. Also, even though with 4 other players out due to injury, this isn't the ideal match to find a replacement for Ezatolahi (who will miss our first match against Morocco at the World Cup due to a red card he carries), we certainly need to play a few games without him as our d-mid to prepare for the Morocco match properly.
My starting line up for tomorrow would be as follow: Hosseini Rezaeian, Hosseini, Cheshmi, Mohammadi Shojaei (C), Ebrahimi, Amiri Torabi, Ghoochannejhad, Ghoddos
Iran v Tunisia game is live on laola1.tv tomorrow. Iran's next opponents Algeria played today and beat Tanzania 4-1
4-3-3/4-5-1 dynamic formation Beiranvand Rezaeian/Ghafouri, Pouraliganj, Hosseini/Montazeri, Mohammadi Eztatolahi ——— HajSafie Dejagah Jahanbakhsh ——————————— Taromi Azmoun
Iran’s likely line-up against Tunisia: Beiranvand/Hosseini Rezaeian/Ghafouri, Hosseini, Montazeri, Mohammadi Eztatolahi ——— HajSafie Shojaei/Ghoddos Ansarifard ——————————— Jahanbakhsh Gucci/Rezaei
I would be okay with this lineup and indeed quite happy with it, but I think it is a bit more offensive than what Queiroz will field in an away game against a side that has qualified to the World Cup.
We didn't always field the same players or use the same tactical scheme, but basically the players we miss against Tunisia were usually in our starting lineup. However, with one exception, namely Morteza Pouraliganji (CB), I have seen Iran do alright without most of them so I am not terribly worried. In the case of Pouraliganji, other than missing our opener against Qatar (were we didn't really play well), Pouraliganji was in our starting lineup and played the full 90 minutes in every qualifying game we played. Even in our subsequent friendlies against the better sides we faced (Russia, Venezuela, Panama), he always started and was subbed only against Panama. I am, therefore, less accustomed to seeing us without him and hope his absence won't affect what has otherwise been a stellar performance by our defense. To be sure, I am not thrilled to see us miss our top 2 goal scorers (Azmoun and Taremi) from the qualifiers -- both of whom are important enough to us for Queiroz to often find a way to field them both in the starting lineup even though Taremi technically is a center-forward like Azmoun. Indeed, Taremi's physical qualities is something that adds to his contributions and something that can hurt us when we don't have Dejagah either. But we have good offensive players to back them up in theory. Ghoddos, for instance, would likely not get much playing time if everyone was healthy and in shape. The same with Ansarifard, who is the top goal scorer in the Greek Super league. Or even Ghoochannejad, who was our most important goal scorer in the 2014 qualifiers and was one of the top goal scorers in the Eredivisie last season. He wouldn't be getting much playing time with us if everyone was in shape. Or Kaveh Rezaei, who is one of the top goal scorers in Belgium this season but who would have a hard time even making our roster. Offensively, we have a lot of depth but defensively, we still do start with the same players most of the time. Except for the right fullback spot, which is contested equally between Vouria Ghafouri (Esteghlal) and Ramin Rezaeian (Ostende, Belgium), the rest of the defense and d-mid positions are rather fixed. Our starting central defenders (absent injury) will be M. Pouraliganji along side S.J. Hosseini. Our left fullback (absent injury) will be Milad Mohammadi. And our d-mid (absent injury or, in his case, the red card from the Korea match which will see him miss our opener against Morocco) will be S. Ezatolahi. These are the players who have given Iran a stellar defense and, naturally, if these players aren't available, I begin to worry more.
I wouldn't go that far. Iran is fielding a pretty strong lineup and we can get a good sense about us in this match. We have good depth for most of these positions.
For the ones interested in another AFC vs CAF matchup. There is a match between Mali and Japan ongoin. First half just ended with a 1-0 lead for Mali.
If the lineup being announced is accurate, Iran will be fielding a very experimental side, missing a slew of regular players against Tunisia besides the 4 injured players. In fact, the lineup is mostly Iran's bench players. Even Jahanbakhsh isn't in the lineup, Ezatolahi isn't either, while the central defense is the duo that were paired together for the first time against Sierra Leone! Beiranvand -- Rezaeian, Khanzadeh, Cheshmi, Mohammadi - Karimi, Haf Safaie - Ghoochanenjad, Shojaie, Amiri- Ansarifard.
The above lineup is now confirmed. Besides the injured players (Azmoun, Taremi, Pouraliganji, and Dejagah), Iran will not start several other regulars (e.g., Jahanbakhsh, Ezatolahi, Hosseini). Makes the game even more interesting for me in some ways. My prediction remains the same though, except if before I felt Iran was as likely to win as it was to draw despite my 1:1 prediction, now I am more inclined to think the game will simply end in a draw.