Five is the number for scheduled friendly matches

Persianfootball.com – ZURICH, Team Melli is scheduled to play 5 friendly international matches after months of financial crisis and cancellations.

According to fifa.com’s Fixtures and Results database, Team Melli will play host to Guinea on 5 March in Tehran. Then the next set of friendly matches will be played in Vienna versus Belarus (18 May), Montenegro (22 May) and Angola (30 May) respectively. Lastly a friendly versus Trinidad and Tobago in Sao Paulo on 8 June.

Previously it was reported by South African media that Bafana Bafana were planning to play two friendly matches in May versus Team Melli in Tehran and Socceroos in Sydney. However the match that was scheduled on 25 May versus Australia is no longer listed on FIFA’s website.

Surely we can speculate that either the matches were completely canceled or perhaps there are plans to arrange these for April instead. Football Federation of Islamic Republic of Iran and the management of Team Melli had stated in the past that prior to the world cup ‘Princes of Persia’ will play at least 6 friendly matches. Well for now, at least on paper a total of 5 matches are scheduled.

Team Melli will experience meeting Guinea for a second time, whilst Belarus and Angola for a third encounter. As for the other opponents, it will be Team Melli’s first meet up with them.

It must be noted that Iran’s last friendly match was versus Oman in Muscat on 22 May 2013. The last time Iran hosted a friendly international was versus fellow Persian-speaking nation of Tajikistan on 6 November 2012.

Previous Head-to-Head encounters

1. 3 November 1989, Peace and Friendship Cup – Group Stage, Kuwait City, Guinea vs Iran 1:1(0:0) , Attendance: 12,000
2. 20 August 2003, Friendly International, Minsk, Belarus vs Iran 2:1(2:0) , Attendance: 10,000
3. 7 February 2007, Friendly International, Tehran, Iran vs Belarus 2:2(1:0), Attendance: 15,000
4. 21 June 2006, FIFA World Cup – Group Stage, Leipzig, Angola vs Iran 1:1(0:0), Attendance: 38,000
5. 2 January 2011, Friendly International, Doha, Angola vs Iran 0:1(0:0)