The former Iranian Team Melli player who traveled to Russia to watch Iran and Spain play, commented favorably on the team’s performance and said: “So far, we have been very good and I hope like all the people of Iran, that we do qualify for the next round this time.”

Mahdi MahdaviKia, speaking to Mehr correspondent, said: “We have bagged three points with the win against Morocco and we still stand a chance of qualification, all depending on the last round. The vital match was the one against Morocco, which, thankfully, we won.”

He said: “We have defended absolutely from the beginning of the match. This cannot be denied and from the perspective of those who follow international football, it was a 9 man defense. But after conceding the goal where we needed to attack, we went ahead and played an admirable game. In fact, we showed that there is potential in the offensive line and we can create dangerous attacking moves.”

The former midfielder was positive and confident about Portugal game: “We will hopefully win that game. It is a hard task to achieve, but it is not beyond us. We can do it”

MahdaviKia spoke about the widely covered criticism of the national team’s defensive style: “Many say they play defensively, it is a legitimate strategy, but in the second half of the game with Spain we have also displayed the potential for attack. We excelled up front when we needed to”

The former midfielder of Team  Melli who scored Iran’s goal against the United States in the 1998 World Cup in France also commented on the criticism directed at Sardar Azmoun’s performance: “There are critics everywhere in the world. Those who criticize must know what role the coach wanted him to play. Some players seem to perform below expectations, but the same player on the pitch would have done an excellent job of what the coach has asked him to do. I think all Team Melli players played well and surpassed expectations. This is the quality that we have at the moment, we can’t ask for something that is beyond their capabilities.”

MahdaviKia commented on Cristiano Ronaldo’s facing Iranian defense “Portugal’s biggest strength is this player who has scored 4 goals for Portugal , in fact all their goals. But it is football, and a team is a set of players it is a team game. For example, you see, Messi cannot do everything by himself, he needs his teammates support. If we need to win then we have to restrain Ronaldo so we can qualify by achieving the desired result.”

Iran and Portugal will face each other FIFA Russian World Cup on Monday. With two players missing from Portugal training session today.

Portuguese players Joao Moutinho and Raphael Guerreiro both missed the team training session today.

According to the news, Moutinho is suffering from cold while Guerreiro has a knock on one of his legs and therefore were absent and did not attend Portuguese training..