Indonesia to test Queiroz’ men in WCQ [VIDEO]

PFDC – TEHRAN, After a rather unchallenging 5-0 aggregate win over Maldives in round 2, it’s now time for Iran to get down to more serious business, when they will kick off World Cup qualification round 3 against Indonesia in Tehran’s Azadi stadium on Friday afternoon (20:00 local time).

Like ahead of the previous round, Team Melli boss Carlos Queiroz skipped the only FIFA matchday available. Instead, Iran’s advantage could be that the bulk of players already have five rounds of Iran’s domestic top flight football in their legs.

Meanwhile the lineup for the Indonesia game seems all but an enigma.

Queiroz obviously prefers a 4-3-3 formation and in goal, undoubtedly Mehdi Rahmati will get the Portugese’s nod.

Khosro Heydari, Hadi Aghily, Jalal Hosseini and Ehsan Hajsafi, who seems to have come out on top in the internal battle against Mehrdad Pouladi, will build the defense.

Midfield will consist of skipper Javad Nekounam, who will be flanked by the creative duo Ali Karimi and Ghasem Hadadifar. This means Andranik Teymourian will have to take a seat on the bench, however, he might replace Hadadifar for the Qatar game four days later.

Upfront, veteran Farhad Majidi will take the suspended Karim Ansarifard’s target striker position. He will enjoy the support of Gholamreza Rezaei and Mohammad-Reza Khalatbari on the wings.

If the Iranian fans will fulfill Queiroz’ recent appeal for support and pack the giant Azadi stadium is highly doubtful. The recent years were full of disappointments for Team Melli and its fans and also the performaces against Madagascar and Maldives weren’t really startling.

However, a win, even a narrow one, could be the beginning of a reconsiliation.