The Iranian Mehr news has reported that Iran will play a friendly match against Iraq in Basra in November of this year, according to a statement by Mehdi Taj.
On the occasion of the courtesy visit by Iraq’s Youth & Sports Minister to the National Teams Football training centre, accompanied by the president of the Iranian football federation, Mahdi Taj, confirmed that part of the bilateral agreement with the Iraqi side was arranging of friendly international matches hosted by both countries.
What seems to be quite odd with this news is that Iraq and Iran will be meeting in the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 second-round qualifiers in Basra on 14th Nov. It is not known if this supposedly friendly match is going to be played before or after the official AFC qualifier. It is highly unusual, in fact not even heard of, for two teams to arrange friendlies matches before meeting in an official competition.
It is unlikely for Team Melli under Marc Wilmots to attempt such endeavour. Mehdi Taj might have been referring to other national teams such as the U23 Omid team or U19.
Apart from the game against Iraq in November 2019, Team Melli’s last match in the second round of the AFC Asian qualifiers 2023 is on 09th Jun 2020 against Iraq in Azadi Stadium.