Did Iran give too much credit to Spain and Portugal?

[beri486]

So far Group A has 2 reps in the final 8 so it should be called the
group of death pending the other 1/8 final matches.
Maybe Iran and Morocco took so much away form Portugal and Spain
that they just could not go on any further. They did have to work much
harder to advance form the group than either Russia or Uruguay, that's
very clear.

[Mr Pouya]

Reading some of the replies here makes me think if people not watched us against Spain before they scored.

[ramingeles2000]

this thread illustrates the important point that there'll always be critics, regardless of performance. TM played in the only way they could in order to achieve results. experts around the world praised us. but still, not everyone will be satisfied. maddening.

spain kicked russia's ass all over the pitch and lost in PKs. Portugal lost on two moments of brilliance by one of the best strikers in the world. it's a game of inches and luck. the fact that portugal and spain are out doesn't diminish our performance.

why can't we just enjoy what we did?

we don't have a single player in a top-5 league. we didn't have sufficient preparations (listen to Omid Ebrahimi's interview w Adel where he says that the lack of friendlies leading up to the WC directly resulted in the poor performance/nerves during the first 20 minutes of the Morocco match)...we dealt with tons of distractions and bullying (Nike, sanctions, etc).

by any measure, this team overachieved. We were one Taremi kick away from winning this group. we were one offsides goal away from coming in as runner up. we conceded only 2 goals.

accept reality and be proud.

[milad_b]

Reading some of the replies here makes me think if people not watched us against Spain before they scored.

And are you sure you watched russia against spain????
even when they were one goal down? They were 1 goal down and still defending with 11 men in their on half and spain had the ball for good 10 minute and russia couldn't get the ball of them!! Stupid mistake by pique gave them a penalty from a corner ! They didn't even attack !

Watch our game against spain ! we even created chance when we were 0-0 (karim ansarifard) . And after we conceded by stupid mistake, did you see that how we played? spain couldn't get the ball from us ! How many chances we missed against spain !

how many chances russia missed against spain ! russia didn't even attack !

[DR Strangemoosh]

I think we played a perfect game given [our resources, our political status and unique problems] and just had some bad luck against spain and portugal, having had some good luck against Morocco. So it kinda balanced out.

We were a whisker away from second round, but we gained respect from the world (that was my experience speaking to fans of all countries in Russia) As long as CQ stays and continues/finishes the project, we have much to be optimistic about.

[DR Strangemoosh]

Well on paper we had group of death but now all members of the group of death are death indeed.

One thing to factor in is how tired Spain, Portugal will have got playing with two disciplined units in Iran and Morocco. Both Spain and Portugal had momentum sapped. After his experience with Beiranvand, even Cristiano's confidence was drained so much that he had to highlight his groin whilst taking a free kick.

Russia and Uruguay got to have field days against a very poor Egypt and Saudi Arabia in comparison. Like friendlies.

[Babak agha]

I think the game against Turkey really showed the state of defense to CQ and that's why he didn't want to have any of that and basically play a 10 men defense (rightfully so as Tosun showed how easily we can be beaten if we don't park the bus).

If anything we need to work on that for the AC, our attacking players are our most talented players, if they had the chance to actually show what they are capable of, they would. It's our defense that CQ is worried about.

It's interesting though how most people here think our defenders are beasts and our offense sucks..

[GolfePersique]

Undoubtedly we adopted the correct strategy and game plan in the group stage.

The way our team performed was exemplary and courageous, but even though CQ had done a tremendous psychological work on our players, it took them some time to believe that we could play an equal game with these teams, although We can’t blame the players as many of them had almost zero international experience.

My only point is that we have to implement this self-belief in our players that we are able to challenge any team. Of course that doesn’t come overnight and needs a lot of work and preparation which is sometimes out of our federation control.

[Los Tehranos]

Iran be Team haye dige neshun dad ke ba che raveshi bayad zede Portugal va Spain bazi kard

[KC McElroy]

So far Group A has 2 reps in the final 8 so it should be called the
group of death pending the other 1/8 final matches.
Maybe Iran and Morocco took so much away form Portugal and Spain
that they just could not go on any further. They did have to work much
harder to advance form the group than either Russia or Uruguay, that's
very clear.

It shouldn't as it wasn't a balanced group especially with the 8-0ers in it. This World Cup had no group of death.

[Rooyintan]

I think Portugal and Spain did not respect Iran and Morocco.

Now it is evident how tough Iran and Morocco were for the Iberian Giants. Both were down to their knees due to being overly exhausted and out of steam during the round of 16.

In the match with Russia, Spanish players were walking on the field rather than running

Viva Iran and well done Morocco.

CR7 should find a retirement village soon

[milad_b]

Both russia and uruguay played exactly just like iran ! The difference is world class players, which we don't have !

The difference between iran and uruguay is 2 World class players who can make something out of no where ! I swear negative people here haven't even watched the game (portugal game against uruguay). Did you guys see that world class goal by Cavani??? compare that to the chance that taremi missed! Did you see how he curled the ball ! Did you see how suarez crossed the ball right onto cavani's head! It was so hard not to score from that !

[Sam van Dam]

i feel that we did, especially during the first half of both games. but i feel the was the strategy, tie game going in 70th minute then start attacking.

the spain and portugal losses in round of 16 shouldn't take any credibility from us or morocco. lets face it, spains goal of Costa was more lucky than moroccos own goal vs us. we also scored an equalizer which CQ said was onside since it never touched Azmouns head. So Spain can thank VAR for saving their ass.

Portugal also got lucky vs Morocco as Pepe made a foul which opened up a lane for Ronaldo to score. Also, Morocco was fouled a few times in the 18 which weren't called.

Then our game vs Portugal. everyone says that we got lucky to get that PK because it want handball. i agree it wasn't handball, but what about the other 3 non calls in the 18? they were almost identical to the Ronaldo penalty. Ronaldo should have also been sent off. I really wish Taremi would have finished in both Spain and Portugal games. as many of you mentions, that the difference between Uruguay advancing and us staying at home, they have world class finishers.

Spain shouldn't have tied Morocco. Pique deliberately did a handball which wasn't called, so that should have been a red. then on Spains tying goal in minute 90, the corner kick was taken from the wrong side. don't know how 6 guys in a video room can miss that. so it should have been 2-1 with a 10 man spain, and ill take the odds on morocco scoring a 3rd which would have been enough to send us through.

Although i agree that both Pique and Ramos were fouled in the 18 vs Russia at the end of ET, that non call was justice being served. Spain and Portugal only advanced thanks to VAR and corrupt refs.

It should have been iran and morocco advancing.

So we did well against these 'giants' but we showed too much respect to them, but we can thank the lack of friendlies for that. don't know how germany felt that playing saudi was more beneficial for them, but i guess both germany and saudi got what they deserved.

friendlies vs top class teams would have benefited us. like how Uruguay played Uzbekistan before WC. they could have played us. or Belgium could have played us instead of saudi

[Nokhodi]

As mentioned, Russia and Uruguay played exactly as TM did against Spain and Portugal. Difference was finishing. Simple as that.

[DireStraits]

Yes we did. We always do. First time we qualified for the world cup we overrated Skotland. Later we found out that Peru was way stronger than Skotland. Spain and Portogal were overrated. Morocco tied Spain 2-2. Spain scored a lucky goal against us.
With some luck we could have won.
I have lots of respect for CQ. But this world cup he was not so good. Now that we see both Portogal and Spain are eliminated I realize they were not so good. I bet that Spanish coach knew it and resigned.