The Iranian national team can be considered the strongest in Asia. In games at important tournaments, most often, they go on the defensive, leaving only the attacker for a good moment. They also prefer playing on the flanks. For the Iranian national team, the World Cup 2022 will be the 6th championship in which the national team will take part. In the FIFA World Rankings, the team ranks 23rd. Iran also occupies
Iran squad for 2022 World Cup
Goalkeepers：
- Alireza Beiranvand
- Amir Abedzadeh
- Hossein Hosseini
Defenders：
- Milad Mohammadi
- Hossein Kanaanizadegan
- Shoja Khalilzade
- Sadegh Moharrami
- Majid Hosseini
- Omid Nurafkan
- Aref Golami
- Danial Esmailifar
- Farshad Faraji
Midfielders：
- Ehsan Hajsafi
- Waheed Amiri
- Alireza Jahanbakhsh
- Said Ezzatollahi
- Mehdi Torabi
- Ali Golizade
- Ahmad Nurollahi
- Milad Sarlac
- Kamal Kamyabiniya
- Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh
- Mehdi Mehdipur
The Iranian national team can be considered the strongest in Asia. In games at important tournaments, most often, they go on the defensive, leaving only the attacker for a good moment. They also prefer playing on the flanks.
For the Iranian national team, the World Cup 2022 will be the 6th championship in which the national team will take part.
In the FIFA World Rankings, the team ranks 23rd. Iran also ranks 27th in terms of average squad cost (€73m) out of 32 World Cup teams.
According to the results of the draw, Iran will start the championship from group B. The teams of England, the USA and Wales will compete for a place in the playoffs with the Iranians.
The head coach of the Iranian national team is Croatian specialist Dragan Skocic. As a football player, he changed 5 clubs and became the first Croatian player who left to conquer football clubs in other countries. Skocic began his coaching career with the Croatian club Rijeka, where he once connected his football career as a player. In 2013, for the position of head coach, he received an offer from the Iranian Malavan. Skocic went through several other Iranian clubs before taking over as head coach of the Iranian national team in 2020. In this position, Dragan has already managed to show a good result – his team took first place in the qualifying group for the 2022 World Cup, gaining 25 points out of 30.
The best achievements of the national team
At the world championships, the Iranians do not have impressive results. The team has never left the group. But at the Asian Cup: 3 tournaments in a row, became champions (1968, 1972, 1976) and 5 times bronze medalists (1980, 1988, 1996, 2004 and 2019).
The Iranian national team has participated in the Olympic Games three times. The best result of the games was 7th place.
An interesting fact of the Iranian team
In the history of the Iranian national team, there was a world-famous football player – Ali Daei. Ali became famous for being the top scorer among all national teams in the world for 17 years, from 2004 to 2021. He has 109 goals to his credit. In 2021, his record was broken by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Should I bet on Iran in the 2022 World Cup?
In their group, the Iranian team looks like a clear outsider. But don’t jump to conclusions. The 2018 World Cup in Russia was the best for Iran in the history of the national team. The Iranians did not leave the group then, although they were on the 1st line for some time. Rivals in the group simply did not expect such a game from Iran. At the last tournament, the Iranians played with Spain, Portugal and Morocco. The company has gathered serious. In the match with Morocco, Iran looked even weaker than expected, but in other matches the team looked not much worse than its rivals. They then lost to Spain with a minimum score, and tied with Portugal 1:1.
In this championship, surprises for the opponent can be brought by such players as:
- Ehsan Hajsafi is the captain and midfielder of the Iranian national team. He plays for the Greek football club AEK. He played more than 110 matches for the national team. Participated in the 2014 and 2018 World Championships. Participated in the 2011 and 2015 Asian Cup. Hajsafi understands the game well and can make the right decision in time.
- Karim Ansarifard is a striker for the national team and Greek AEK. A promising football player, who was called the successor of the famous Ali Daei. He was recognized as Iran’s Sportsman of the Year in 2011. At the 2019 Asian Cup, in the quarterfinals he scored a goal against China.
- Alireza Jahanbakhsh is a striker for the Dutch national team and Feyenoord. Participant of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. As part of the club, he was recognized as the top scorer of the 2017/18 Dutch championship, scoring 21 goals.
- Serdar Azmun is a striker for the German national team and Bayer 04. Before the German club, he played in 3 Russian ones: Rubin, Rostov and Zenit. As part of the national team, he took 3rd place at the Asian Cup 2019.
The weak link in the team can be called the line of defense. Defenders often make mistakes, which leads to dangerous moments at the gates of Iran.
Will he leave the group?
At the beginning of the championship, Fonbet bookmakers estimate the chances for the playoffs, quartet B:
- Iran – coefficient 4.80
- Wales – 2.10
- USA – 1.95
- England – 1.04.
It will be really difficult only with the England team. With the USA and Wales, you can compete for second place in the group.
How will Iran perform in the playoffs?
If Iran manages to reach the playoffs from second place, then their opponent in 1/8, with a high degree of probability, will be the leader of group A – the Netherlands. With this team it will be difficult even for the favorites of the championship. It is hard to believe in Iran’s victory in this confrontation. So Fonbet predicts the exit of the Iranians in ¼, with a coefficient of 12.00, against 1.85 for the Dutch.
Iran’s chances: for the semi-finals, are estimated at 1 in 40; for the final – 1 to 75; victory – 1 to 250.
