Iran Vs. Lithuania

[Roozbeh-G2006]

One question, what's the point in playing behind closed doors if all the tactics/formations, scoreline, will be revealed after the match?

There is a lot more to it than just tactics formation and scoreline.. Behind closed doors and not televised means none of our opponents can watch videos of our team play and re-play and study in slow motion or fast forward each individual player to see their current form and fitness, strength and weaknesses.

[OFFSIDE_1]

Gol Germany! 8 min in.

goal in the 8th minute against the 8-0ers ..... how fitting

[Futbaldoost]

Apparently Karim was subbed for Taremi in the 80th minute. Personally, I don't think Taremi is WC material let alone a good starter or 80 minute player but we'll see.

The good news is (if the line-ups and subs were accurate) that Masoud and Ashkan held-up for 90 minutes and CQ went with a 4-1-4-1 which is a must against Spain and potentially Portugal.

I still like to see a 4-2-2-2 against Morocco but will be happy with a 4-1-4-1 too. The important thing is we got the goal for the confidence boost. Fingers crossed.

Ashkan was not on the starting line-up. According to Varzesh3 (http://www.varzesh3.com/news/1528990...A7%D9%86%D9%87), CQ used all six subs but only Karim coming in for Taremi at the 80th minute is reported. I admire CQ for his diligence. It takes a lot of energy and discipline to have a game behind closed doors. In general, I admire him for all his recent hard decisions, leaving Seyed Jallal and Vouria out of the list, insisting that the Kosovo game be held behind closed doors that caused it to be canceled by Kosovo federation and his commitment to Cheshmi that many on this forum disagree with. That's character for you. He is focused on one and only goal for now: win against Morocco. All the power to him!

Go Team Melli!

[DR Strangemoosh]

Result is absolutely fine. Even a 0-0 or 0-1 loss would be fine. No national team takes the warm up/behind closed doors match seriously in terms of result.

The last game is is a friendly warm-up to keep the players concentrating, stay in sync and pumped for the first match of the tournament.


My worry is with the final line-up as a I am more nervous with Cheshmi and Masoud starting than with any other previous TM before a world cup. I just can't see how either 1) Contribute to the compact defensive unit compared to other players 2) Can facilitate the swift counterattacking we will need against Spain and Portugal, again compared to other players.

CQ hasn't done me wrong before so I can only have faith in what he is planning, but I really hope my fears are unfounded....

[Doctor DOOM]

we have a wiley coach with all sorts of twisted stuff going on in his noggin.
so anything is possible.
I would even expect we had beaten the Lithuanians by 3-4 goals behind the closed doors with different formation & line up, …..
but release the 1-0 result as per design, giving Karim , who may or may not have even played a gift in the process.
Could be a birthday gift or something.

wouldnt be surprised

[Babak agha]

Match report by Onefootball.com

Olympiacos striker Karim Ansarifard scored in the 88th minute to give Iran a 1-0 win in a behind-closed-doors friendly against Lithuania.

Karim Ansarifard scored a late winner to give Iran a 1-0 victory over Lithuania in a behind-closed-doors friendly on Friday.
Carlos Queiroz's side, who will face Morocco, Spain and Portugal in Group B at the World Cup, went into the game on the back of a 2-1 friendly defeat against Turkey in Istanbul and struggled to create chances against Edgaras Jankauskas' lively Lithuania side.

After going in goalless at half-time, Iran spent much of the second half pinned back by waves of Lithuanian attacks, with Justas Lasickas firing over the crossbar before substitute Povilas Leimonas failed to hit the target after a neat passing move culminated in a chance on the hour mark.
Iran came to life in the last 10 minutes of the game, piling forwards and creating a number of chances before Olympiacos striker Ansarifard tried his luck from the edge of the penalty area and found the net in the 88th minute.

While the result – Iran's fourth victory in their last six international friendlies – will have pleased Queiroz, the manner of his side's performance will have given him food for thought ahead of their group opener against Morocco on June 15.

https://onefootball.com/en/news/iran...91709288831159

[Paradigm]

Lithuania's current FIFA ranking is 126. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lith..._football_team

[DireStraits]

Apparently Karim was subbed for Taremi in the 80th minute. Personally, I don't think Taremi is WC material let alone a good starter or 80 minute player but we'll see.
The good news is (if the line-ups and subs were accurate) that Masoud and Ashkan held-up for 90 minutes and CQ went with a 4-1-4-1 which is a must against Spain and potentially Portugal.
I still like to see a 4-2-2-2 against Morocco but will be happy with a 4-1-4-1 too. The important thing is we got the goal for the confidence boost. Fingers crossed.

Salam Behrou
I prefer Saman instead of Taremi if Taremi is not playing good.
-----------------------------------Ansarifard-----------------------------------
xxxxxx ----------- Hajsafi ----------------------Shojaei------------ xxxxx
------------------------------------xxxxxxx-----------------------------------
xxxx---------------xxxx------------------------------xxxxx-------------xxxxxx
-----------------------------------Biranvand-------------------------------------
The triangle Ansarifarf, HajSafi and Shojaei all know each other from Greece.
They know hoe to find each other.
They know each other and how to find each other.

[DR Strangemoosh]

Lithuania's current FIFA ranking is 126. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lith..._football_team

Honestly doesn't matter.

AS Roma B was just a bunch of kids we lost 7-1 to in 1998 just before our best ever world cup performance.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating it, as long as the performance against Morocco is fine then I would not mind losing 3-0 against Lithuania, Akhmat Grozny C-team or Melanesian IslandStars XI

[Martin-Reza]

After going in goalless at half-time, Iran spent much of the second half pinned back by waves of Lithuanian attacks.

Ehm, yeah, sure

[Bi-honar]

Ashkan was not on the starting line-up. According to Varzesh3 (http://www.varzesh3.com/news/1528990...A7%D9%86%D9%87), CQ used all six subs but only Karim coming in for Taremi at the 80th minute is reported. I admire CQ for his diligence. It takes a lot of energy and discipline to have a game behind closed doors. In general, I admire him for all his recent hard decisions, leaving Seyed Jallal and Vouria out of the list, insisting that the Kosovo game be held behind closed doors that caused it to be canceled by Kosovo federation and his commitment to Cheshmi that many on this forum disagree with. That's character for you. He is focused on one and only goal for now: win against Morocco. All the power to him!

Go Team Melli!

That line-up is absolutely unlikely amigo and it says according to rumors in the article (i.e. they took the info from some BS site).

I'm not a huge fan of Ashkan or Masoud at this point in their careers but I can totally understand a 4-1-4-1 formation with the two of them in it with Ehsan playing behind them.

He has the perfect balance of experience (Ehsan/Ashkan/Masoud) and youth (ARJ and Azmoun), holding (Ashkan), distribution (Ehsan and Masoud) for attack and although this is not necessarily a good defensive line-up, because the formation can make the midfield very compact for defending it will be hard to break-down.

The only element I don't fully understand is Taremi but seeing how CQ has an affinity for Taremi, Torabi and Amiri, all players that can have explosive moments along with ARJ, I suspect that's his motive: to add a another dimension to our attack and from both sides (i.e. both Taremi and ARJ will have more of a free role to make diagonal runs into the box when Milad or Rezaeian move up).

Even if all the line-up was wrong and Azmoun played a full 90 minutes, I'm happy about that!

[Doctor DOOM]

^^ @ Martin:
in other words, CQ "trying out different scenarios". which makes proper sense.

I wouldnt be surprised to see CQ change the orders and ask the team to attack at min 80.








I still say a whole lot has been kept from the world

[DR Strangemoosh]

I think we can now infer our likely starting line-up against Morocco, similar to the last warm-up match for Brazil

-----------------------------------Azmoun-----------------------------------------
-----Taremi----------------------------------------------Jahanbakhsh------------
-------------------------------------Shojaei---------------------------------------
----------------------Hajsafi-------------------------Ebrahimi--------------------
Mohammadi----------Pouraliganji-----------------Cheshmi--------------Rezaian
-----------------------------------Beiranvand---------------------------------------

I would be very surprised now after using this line-up for the last game and for the final closed-doors game, if he changes it. Really hope he does though!


With subs in likely order as per situation

1= Amiri
1= Ghoddos (depending on event)

3. Ansarifard (I'm guessing his goal may have put him higher up)
4. Dejagah
5. Ghoochannejhad

[Babak agha]

Ehm, yeah, sure

Don't know where they got their report from.., maybe they had a reporter there.

They also have a photo of Karim wearing the Captain band, has he been captain before?

[Tehranto]

Can someone please confirm what lineup was used?