Iran’s Team Melli will be playing a friendly match against the reserve team of Benfica in preparation for the AFC Asian Cup! The match will be played at 10:30 in the morning next Tuesday 14th October 2014.

Team Melli squad is currently in Carlos Queiroz homeland and so far has managed to arrange two matches only, one of which would have been a real test for Team Melli which has lost valuable preparation time for the upcoming premiere Asian Competition. Due to procrastinating of Queiroz and Kaffashian on signing a contract extension, Team Melli had no coach or a program until a few weeks ago.

The match against full strength Benfica, would have been a strong duel to test Queiroz’s much favored defensive system. However, since the famous Portuguese club and three times European Cup holder is involved in the Champions League and the National Team of Portugal is busy with the European Cup qualifiers, Benfica coach Jorge Jesus has preferred to field the reserve team giving his main players enough rest for the tough schedule ahead.
Benfica will be meeting Sporting Covilhã in the Portuguese cup on 18th October.

On the other hand, Iran opponents in the group have been having a busy schedule from the summer as UAE has played strong oppositions like Paraguay , Lithuania, Norway, Georgia & Armenia while Qatar played the likes of Uzbekistan, Peru, Morocco, Indonesia and Macedonia.

It is rumored that a friendly match against Palestine is on the cards next for Team Melli, but it has yet to be finalized.