Latest on Team Melli

Dragan Skocic recalled two players from the standby list while including a previously unlisted Perspolis midfielder to the squad.

Farshad Faraji was called by Team Melli to fill in for the absent players while Aghasi, Rafei, and Kamiabinia have been added to the party. While Taremi is on the squad, his flight was disrupted as the airplane taking him from Portugal to Istanbul was diverted after the icy weather in the airport closed the runway. Taremi’s flight landed at Dalman Airport in southwest Turkey near Bodrum and he like the other passengers are stranded there awaiting a flight and weather improvement.
The match on Thursday will be refereed by the Australian Christopher James Beath.

There is still no confirmation on whether the spectators will be allowed or not for the Iraq match. Most probably, a 20% max number of spectators may be allowed in provided the passengers are vaccinated according to the latest requirements of health protocols.
Tuesday’s training session was attended by 17 players and was carried out in Azadi Stadium.
The Iraqi squad had 5 positive PCR tests on arrival at Imam Airport in Tehran. After protesting the results, another test was carried out with one positive result. Further request to repeat the test was not entertained again. Iraq has a new coach in the Montenegran Željko Petrović. This will be Iraq’s third coach in the qualifiers after Katanec (Slovenia) and Dick Advocaat (Netherlands).
The revised list of invited players:
- Goalkeepers:

the Standby List: Mohammadreza Akhbari, Danial Ismailifard, Zubair Nikonfs,