Messi sinks brilliant Iran in injury time

Persianfootball.com – BELO HORIZONTE, A stunning display from Iran was not enough to gain points against Argentina due to lack of quality in the finishing touch and a moment of brilliance from Lionel Messi as Iran were narrowly defeated 0-1 by an injury time goal in group F of the 2014 World Cup on Saturday.

Brilliantly prepared by coach Carlos Queiroz, Iran showed their maybe best performance ever at world stage and although punished late they will have their final against Bosnia & Herzegovina to advance from the group stage the first time in four attempts.

Queiroz slightly surprisingly brought in the technically more gifted Masoud Shojaei for hard worker Khosro Heydari on the right midfield side, but sticked to his 4-4-1-1 formation.

Argentina had the much bigger share of the game in first half, but mainly very dangerous on set pieces whereas Iran only had one good opportunity when centerback Jalal Hosseini headed the a freekick over the crossbar.

Iran’s defensive organisation, discipline and work rate once more was world class while the flawless Alireza Haghighi in goal was on alert in the few situations the sub-par Argentinians broke down the massive Iranian defensive block.

Second half started as the first had ended, but Iran more and more was able to create danger and should have taken the lead on three occassions, but Reza Ghoochannejhad’s header to Pejman Montazeri’s fine cross as well as Ashkan Dejagah’s superb header could be saved by Romero before the Argentinian keeper again did well on Ghoochannejhad’s strike to a perfect throughball by substitute Alireza Jahanbakhsh.

Iran should have gotten a penalty as well when Ashkan Dejagah was brought down in the box, but the Serbian referee failed to spot the foul.

Argentina of course remained dangerous and Haghighi had to show his class on a couple of occassion.

While Iran had been lucky that Messi had narrowly missed Iran’s goal midway in second half, they weren’t as lucky in injury time when an exhausted Ghoochannejhad couldn’t block the shot and a tired Javad Nekounam was not close enough to support in defense against the superstar’s signature move.

Although Team Melli will be disappointed about the late goal and not having gotten at least a point from a match they could have even won, the satisfaction of proving to the world Iran is a strong opposition for every team and contender for one of the two top spots in the group will give them some comfort.

Most important though is the fact that Iran remain in the race for a knockout stage spot.

Iran will certainly have to beat a strong Bosnian team on Wednesday and hope that Nigeria won’t win tonight’s match and then gain points from Argentina as well.

Argentina – Iran 1-0 (0-0)
World Cup 2014, Group F, Belo Horizonte

Goal: 1-0 Lionel Messi (92′)

Argentina: Romero – Zabaleta, Garay, Fernandez, Rojo – Mascherano, Gago, Di Maria (94′ Biglia) – Messi, Higuain (76′ Lavazzi), Aguero (76′ Palacio)

Iran: A. Haghighi – Montazeri, Hosseini, Sadeghi, Pouladi – Shojaei (76′ Heydari), Teymourian, Nekounam, Hajsafi (88′ R. Haghighi) – Dejagah (85′ Jahanbakhsh) – Ghoochannejhad

Bookings: Nekounam, Shojaei