Iran’s hopes shattered by smart Bosnians

Persianfootball.com – SALVADOR, Iranian hopes of advancing to the knock-out stage for the very first time have been smashed by a 3-1 defeat in their final group match against Bosnia & Herzegovina.

While Carlos Queiroz relied on the same line-up against Argentina last week, Bosnia’s coach Safet Susic made some changes compared to their 1-0 defeat against Nigeria.

Iran started as expected with a rather defensive tactic while Bosnia unsurprisingly had a higher ball possession although Bosnia were already out of the World Cup.

Manchester City striker Edin Dzeko started the misery for the Iranians in the 23rd minute with a solid shot after Las Palmas midfielder Masoud Shojaei lost the ball in the opposing midfield in an dilettante way.

Shojaei almost made up for his mistake just moments later, but his deflected shot bounced off the lower side of the crossbar.

Queiroz released Shojaei after a abysmal performance and subbed in Heydari who had little impact on Iran’s offense which at times was non-existent.

AS Roma midfielder Miralem Pjanic (59′) scored Bosnia’s second from offside position after a horrible turnover from the usual reliable Jalal Hosseini. It was the second decisive refereeing mistake against Iran after the not given penalty versus Argentina.

After Charlton striker Reza Ghoochannejhad scored the sole Iranian goal of the World Cup 2014 in the 82nd minute when captain Javad Nekounam had beaten the offside, full-back Avdija Vrsajevic (83′) finalized Iran’s defeat with his immediate 3-1 after a counter attack, with the ball again finding the way into the net via the goalpost.

Iran, who was neither able to repeat the great defensive display from the two previous games nor able to dominate Bosnia for longer periods, gave up and again settled with just a point from the group stage, although that together with the 1-4 goal difference makes Iran the best Asian team at the World Cup so far, with South Korea having a game in hand.

IRAN – BiH 1-3 (0-1)
World Cup 2014, Salvador, Group F

Goals:
0-1 Dzeko (23′)
0-2 Pjanic (59′)
1-2 Ghoochannejhad (82′ / assist by Nekounam)
1-3 Vrsajevic (83′)

Bookings for Iran:
Ansarifard

Iran: A. Haghighi – Montazeri, Hosseini, Sadeghi, Pouladi – Teymourian, Nekounam – Shojaei (46′ Heydari), Dejagah (68′ Ansarifard), Hajsafi (63′ Jahanbakhsh) – Ghoochannejhad