Bangkok

Iran’s Football head coach , Carlos Queiroz believes that the Asian Nations need to “Wake Up” in the aftermath of the humiliating defeat of Jordan against Uruguay in Amman, in the inter-continental play-off for the FIFA World Cup 2014.

Speaking in the pre-game press conference, Queiroz said that “Iran has qualified for the World Cup . We have a major responsibility to represent Asia, because we do not represent Iran only but also represent Asia.”

commenting on the match , the Portuguese coach said  “will try to use this match against Thailand to improve our skills and our football to be able to play in the World Cup”. He also indicated that his team will be missing 3 major players, however in the short time available, there was no major selection changes possible .

Queiroz declined to answer a question about how Iran will perform in the World Cup and said that he prefers to focus on the match against Thailand.

Queiroz diplomatically declined to comment on the complaint letter by FFIRI against the Thai hosting and said that this is not part of his duties.  On his views of Thailand national team , Queiroz said ” I watched several matches of Thailand with China and Lebanon and of course the last match that we played with them in Tehran. I believe they are a good team and offensive minded. We all saw how they never gave up ion Tehran and managed to score a goal against us late in that game. I know that we will have a tough match tomorrow. The records also show that we have not been successful in Thailand, which will increase the burden on us.”

Iran is currently leading the table of Group B of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 qualifiers with 7 points followed by Kuwait and Lebanon. Thailand is pointless after 3 games and this match is a must win for them if they want to keep their hopes alive in the group. Thailand will be depending on  Teerasil Dangda , the ex-Muang Thong United player who has joined Atletico Madrid on a year long loan , to provide the goals.