Team Melli will start its campaign in the qualifying round of the FIFA World Cup 2026 with a home game in Group E of the Asian Zone qualifiers against Hong Kong. Meanwhile, Turkmenistan will be hosting Uzbekistan in Ashgabad half an hour earlier in the second match of the four-team group.
Team Melli has a 100% record against Chinese Hong Kong as it has never dropped a point in their 6 matches. The first encounter between the two in 1968 was in Amjadieh Stadium when Hong Kong was one of the better Asian Teams while Iran had a young ambitious and powerful team. Team Melli ended up lifting the Asian trophy for the first time and defeating Hong Kong 2-0 in the run for the championship, the goals being scored by the two young and upcoming stars, Homayoun Behzadi and Ali Jabbari.
It took Hong Kong 47 years to manage some success against Iran and that was in Bahrain in 2021 in the same competition when the Far Eastern team managed to score the only goal against Iran in 6 previous meeting.
That is as far as one can call success of the Chinese against one of the powerful teams of Asia.
This time, it will be one of the same, however, Hong Kong has never been a minnow in Asian Football. It has a rich tradition and has been playing top level football with a professionally organized league foe over half a century. Hong Kong will certainly make Team Melli work hard and goals will not be scored easily.
Ghalenoei will stick to the tried and trusted and most probably will start Azmoun and Taremi up front as the center forwards while Jahanbakhsh, Mohebbi will work the flanks and Ezzatollahi and Nourollahi be the holding midfielders. There is a good chance that Ghoddos will replace one of the two. Ezzatollahi and Nourollahi have been the weakest performers in the Team and frankly one wonders if there are footballing reasons for them to be regular starters while several young and upcoming players could very well be given the chance to perform at this level of competition.
Ghalenoei, however, has made it quite clear that is not a believer in youth energy for Team Melli at this time. Although he does occasionally praise the ability and quality off young players even selects a few, for good measure, and let them experience cameo appearances quite late in the games. And that is as far as it goes.
Despite the aging back four, it is probably the most reliable of the 4 lines. However, lack of pace and confusion has been known to occur in this line as well. Beiranvand has not been the start that he was a few years back. Niazmand at this time is a better keeper, but Ghalenoei may prefer the experience of the Persepolis keeper on the skill of agility of Sepahan;s gate keeper.
Taremi is experiencing a soft patch in the last few weeks with Porto. He has been profligate and not the sharp goal scorer of last season. Hong Kong defenders, however, will have a tough time containing him.
In contrast, Azmoun, has been at the top of his game lately and that first header goal he scored for his club, was world class. Another source of trouble for Hong Kong defenders.
Head to Head Iran v. Hong Kong
| Place | MP | W | D | L | GF-GA | GD |
| Home | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8-1 | 7 |
| Away | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4-0 | 4 |
| Neutral | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2-0 | 2 |
| Total | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 14-1 | +13 |