With the draw of the third round concluded in Kuala Lumpur AFC headquarters, Iran has been grouped with Korea Rep., Syria, Iraq, UAE, and Lebanon.
While navigating this group of teams is not as easy as it looks on paper, the historic data supports Iran and draws a clear picture of superiority against its rival, the exception being South Korea which the teams are neck to neck on records.
Iran has played a total of 114 matches against these 5 teams with a percentage of wins set at 57%. Only 15% of the matches ended in a loss against these rivals.
The latest team that defeated Iran in any match was Iraq back in the 2nd round. UAE never won against Iran in official competition matches.
| Korea Rep. | ||||||
| H / A / N | Matches | W | D | L | Goals | + / – |
| H | 7 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 10 – 03 | 7 |
| A | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 08 – 08 | 0 |
| N | 13 | 5 | 1 | 7 | 15 – 22 | -7 |
| Total | 31 | 13 | 9 | 9 | 33 – 33 | 0 |
| Syria | ||||||
| H / A / N | Matches | W | D | L | Goals | + / – |
| H | 13 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 29 – 10 | 19 |
| A | 8 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 10 – 03 | 7 |
| N | 7 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 08 – 03 | 5 |
| Total | 28 | 15 | 12 | 1 | 47 – 16 | 31 |
Lebanon |
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| H / A / N | Matches | W | D | L | Goals | + / – |
| H | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 14 – 0 | 14 |
| A | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 – 02 | 9 |
| N | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 – 0 | 2 |
| Total | 10 | 8 | 1 | 1 | 27 – 02 | 25 |
Iraq |
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| H / A / N | Matches | W | D | L | Goals | + / – |
| H | 12 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 19 – 08 | 11 |
| A | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 04 – 01 | 3 |
| N | 14 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 17 – 12 | 5 |
| Total | 29 | 17 | 7 | 5 | 40 – 21 | 19 |
UAE |
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| H / A / N | Matches | W | D | L | Goals | + / – |
| H | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 4 – 0 | 4 |
| A | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 13 – 04 | 9 |
| N | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7 – 0 | 7 |
| Total | 16 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 24 – 04 | 20 |
OVERALL RESULTS |
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| P | W | D | L | GF | GA | |
| 114 | 65 | 32 | 17 | 171 | 76 | |
| 57% | 28% | 15% | ||||
Last meetings
| Iraq | 15-06-21 | WC Qualifier | N | 1 – 0 | 16 | Days |
| Syria | 03-03-21 | Friendly | H | 3 – 0 | 3 | Months |
| Korea Rep | 11-06-19 | Friendly | A | 1 -1 | 2 | years |
| UAE | 19-01-15 | Asian Cup | H | 1 – 0 | 6 | years |
| Lebanon | 19-11-13 | Asian Cup Qlfy | H | 4 – 1 | 7 | Years |
Loss records
In the same FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Team Melli has suffered its last loss. Surprisingly Lebanon was the latest team that has defeated Team Melli again in the World Cup qualifiers but that was 8 years ago. The third-ranked defeat came from Kore Rep in the quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup 2011 in Qatar and that was 11 years ago.
The record of the last defeat goes to Syria which managed its only win against Iran in the Qualifiers some 48 years ago.
| TEAM | MATCH DATE | YEARS | Result | Competition |
| IRAQ | 14-11-2019 | 1.5 | 1 – 2 | World Cup QLFY |
| LEBANON | 11-09-2012 | 8 | 0 – 1 | World Cup QLFY |
| KOREA REP | 22-01-2011 | 10 | 0 – 1 | ASIAN CUP |
| UAE | 02-09-1997 | 23 | 1 – 3 | FRIENDLY |
| SYRIA | 15-05-1973 | 48 | 0 – 1 | World Cup QLFY |