Carlos Queiroz’s Iran look capable of blunting England attackers in opener

RacingPost.com – DOHA, The Asian football expert John Duerden assesses Iran’s chances.

England were pretty happy when the draw for the World Cup group stage was made in April but so too were Iran, who take on the Three Lions in their Group B opener on Monday.

This is Iran’s sixth appearance at the World Cup finals and they have never got out of their group, although they almost came through a really tough section in 2018.

They took four points from matches against Spain, Portugal and Morocco and their squad looks even better four years on so England should expect a difficult opening fixture.

Iran have brought back their favourite coach Carlos Queiroz for this tournament. He won’t care about playing attractive football or how his tactics are perceived – he just wants his team to make it as hard as possible for England to play their football.

In September, just two weeks into his second spell as Iran coach, they beat a strong Uruguay team 1-0 in a friendly, pressing a bit higher up the pitch than they did at the 2018 finals, and they can certainly cause problems for their group rivals. 

I’ve spoken to Queiroz a few times and he will be desperate to win this game against England, or even take a point given that there are winnable fixtures against Wales and the USA to follow.

I think Iran have probably been underestimated and the 100-30 that they qualify from the group could be a price worth taking.

Like any Queiroz-coached team, they will be well drilled, frustrating to play against, and they’ll do anything to upset England’s gameplan. If England score early it’ll be a different story but if Iran manage to take the lead then expect time-wasting like you wouldn’t believe!

Even a draw on Monday would be one of the best results in Iran’s footballing history and they have better attacking options than they’ve had at past World Cups.

Mehdi Taremi scores lots of goals for Porto, in the Champions League as well as the Primeira Liga, and Bayer Leverkusen’s Sardar Azmoun is one of the best strikers in Asia although he has been struggling with a calf injury.

Conditions in Qatar will be familiar for Iran as they play in the region all the time and I don’t expect the political protests at home to affect the squad too much.

The situation will be on the players’ minds, of course, and midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh was clearly fed up about the English media’s questions on the subject this week. However, Queiroz and his players understand the significance of Monday’s match so they should be fully focused on their performance on the pitch.