in a memorial day in Iranian football Team, Melli defeated hapless Cambodia 14-0 in the qualifying rounds of FIFA World Cup 2022 and the AFC Asian Cup 2023. The match also was the first where females were allowed to enter football stadiums.

Team Melli opened the scoring early in the 4th minute by a spectacular long-range shoot by Ahmad Nourallahi after which the floodgates were simply opened, The first half ended 7-0, in the second Team Melli added another 7 to increase the Tally to 14 goals.

Karim Ansarifard scored 4 goals, Sardar Azmoun scored a hat trick, Mehdi Taremi and debutant Mohammad Mohebi both scored a brace while the other debutant Mehrdad Mohammadi also scored a goal While Kanani-Zadegan and Nouralahi made it 14.

While Marc Wilmots has already made it clear that his style will be an offensive one, not many believed that Team Melli will annihilate their guests with such a margin.

Two events in the match would have spoilt the result of the match. the first one was the reckless penalty that Beiranvand conceded but he remedied his error by saving the subsequent penalty kick,

The other was a more serious one occurred while Iran was leading 12-0.  on an attack on the Cambodia goal, Morteza Pouraliganji came rushing with raised his foot dangerously high on the cross while Cambodia keeper Keo Soksela had the ball safely in his possession. Pouraliganji foot contacted the keeper who fell in agony. It was a straight red card for the Team Melli defender but surprisingly the Indian referee only pulled a yellow card.!

Those two fouls were uncalled for. While against a team such as Cambodia, it would have made little difference, such silly fouls could be costly against stronger teams. It needs to be addressed by the coaching staff.