Tag: Mehdi Taremi

Game review: Iran vs. Bahrain

Following the comprehensive 0 – 3 defeat against Iran in the return match of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 qualifiers, Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa in his post-match statement said “the difference between the two sides was that Iran had the likes of Azmoun and Taremi.”

“The strength of Iran was their ability to launch attacks from the middle and we should have not given the space to do what they want,” said the Portuguese coach.

Sousa was accurate in his analysis but what he opted to mention was that he was outwitted by a less famous coach that hardly anyone has heard off beyond Iran and his homeland Croatia’s borders.

Dragan Skočić’s appointment as a head coach of Iran couldn’t have come at any worst time for himself and the team. The outbreak of the covid19 pandemic spoilt all his plans, in fact, he did not sit on the bench for his first match until 9 months after his 6th February 2020 appointment. His record now is a perfect 100%.

5 matches played 3 friendlies and 2 World Cup qualifiers so far. There is little doubt that he will make it 6 out of 6 comes Friday in the match against Cambodia.

There is no escaping the fact that Skočić is not a household name in Iran’s football as he coached lackluster or middle of the table teams before being appointed as Head Coach of Team Melli, however, in the few matches that he coached especially in the FIFA qualifiers, the 52 years old Croat has displayed a level of skill and vision that is unique. Give him the right players and this coach will bring glory to any team.

He rightly recognized that Jahanbakhsh despite his status is not delivering at the moment. He also rightly recognized that the team needs a skillful running player in the midfield who can supply quality balls to the forwards and hence Saman Ghoddos.

In the first half of the match against Bahrain, he recognized that Bahrain defensive plan is solid. It was a chapter from Carlos Queiroz’s book which his protégé Helios Sous has learned and implemented quite well in Bahrain National Team. Before the match against Iran, Bahrain conceded one goal only in six group matches. That proves how well their defensive plan is effective.

With that in mind, introducing a player such as Ghoddos, or Torabi was the best mean of beating such defenses. It worked quite well for Team Melli and Skočić was rightly delighted with his successful plan. The second goal scored by Azmoun had all the attributes and beauties of a great goal with amove started by Azmoun himself.

No plan will work unless you have the quality players. With Taremi and Azmoun, Skocic could not ask for more. At the end of the day, these two made the difference. Clearly, if they receive the services, they will deliver. In the case of Taremi, perhaps it is a question of focus and concentration as he seems to waste many scoring chances provided to him. Perhaps that is the ceiling of his abilities, but there might be some psychological work that Skocic and other coaches can work on increase his accuracy in front of the goal. He also needs to stop acting innocent and protesting whenever he misses the goal, or loses the ball and get on with the game.

Pouraliganji was an assuring figure when he came in. Although the pair Khalilzadeh and Kanai-Zadegan have performed well, they have not really been tested properly yet. The latter is a bit of a risk and lacks the experience of Pouraliganji. Shojaa Khalilzadeh is more solid but a player that could ignite at any time. Level heads and experience are really required in the center of defense.

The midfield of Team Melli must be credited for achieving the comprehensive victory against Bahrain. Their defensive and offensive roles were played quite efficiently. It was the midfield players who restricted Bahrain forwards and cut their supplies, although to be fair Bahrain midfield players were poor compared to their previous matches. Skocic bemoaned the loss of Amiri for the rest of the competition. Amiri had a very solid game against Bahrain. However, there are better players at the coach’s disposal, and Amiri’s absence against Iraq would not even be noticed.

Gholizadeh, Ezatollahi, Hajsafy, Torabi, Nourallahi, Jahanbakhsh are all available and do the job as well if not better than Amiri.

It was a good solid overall performance by Team Melli with some rough edges. The result was sweet and crucial. More of the same against Iraq will surely propel Iran to the next rounds of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

 

Dragan Skocic proud of his team’s resolve and performance

Riffa: Islamic Republic of Iran head coach Dragan Skočić, praised his side’s resolve and performance in the 3-0 win over Bahrain in Group C of the Asian Qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 on Monday.

After a relatively even first half, Iran were dominant in the second period with Sardar Azmoun scoring twice in eight minutes, before Mehdi Taremi sealed the win with a strike of his own.

Skocic was ecstatic with the result, which pushed the Central Asians up to second place on 12 points in the standings, ahead of Bahrain on goal difference. Leaders Iraq have 14 points.

“First of all, I want to congratulate my team for the valuable win against Bahrain. We started the campaign with just six points but have earned two important wins against Hong Kong and Bahrain,” Skocic said.

“The win doesn’t surprise us because we entered the match with the aim of getting three points.”

Dragan Skocic - FFIRI

Skocic revealed that he had made changes to Iran’s style of play which produced the important win but expressed concern that Vahid Amiri is facing the possibility of being sidelined for their remaining two fixtures.

“We tried to avoid any defensive mistakes that could have cost us a lot and put an end to our chances. Congratulations to the players once again. The only negative point from this game was losing one of our best players, Vahid Amiri, and we will probably have a problem with his absence for the coming matches.”

IR Iran v Bahrain - AQ (7)

“The result was based on the tactics we chose, and I’m proud of this victory. I have said before that the Bahraini team is a respectable team, and we prepared thoroughly for the match.

“Our style of play was completely different from the match against Hong Kong. We were ready for this game, and right now I want to enjoy this historic victory. We will start thinking about Cambodia on Tuesday,” Skocic added.

Iran face a must-win match against Cambodia on Friday, before playing Iraq in their final fixture four days later.

Bahrain head coach Helio Sousa didn’t hide his disappointment, saying: “If there is someone who should be disappointed, it would be me.

“We have built great confidence in our team and everyone believed in us to achieve victory but we faced a difficult team.

“A draw would have been a better result for us rather than the defeat, of course. Now, we must reach 15 points but our chances are slim because Iraq and Iran have two matches remaining.”

Sousa said the difference between the two sides was that Iran had the likes of Azmoun and Taremi.

“The strength of Iran was their ability to launch attacks from the middle and we should have not given them space to do what they want,” said the Portuguese coach.

“Our opponents had good quality players, including the best player in the Russian Premier League while they also have several players who play in top teams around Europe.

“We made good substitutions but the second goal that we conceded affected us a lot. We were hoping to have a better result but we failed to do so although we played with a lot of bravery.”

 

Brute force win Iran 3 – 0 Bahrain.

Team Melli revitalized its chances of qualifying for the next round of FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar after a convincing and comprehensive win against Bahrain by three goals to nil.

Sardar Azmoun scored two goals (54′),(61) and Mehdi Taremi (79′) scored the third. The first half of the match played in Bahrain’s National Stadium ended goal-less.

The match started with both teams feeling the stress of the game. Both teams had several stray passes while Team Melli was starting its offense with aimless direct football from Kanani and Khalilzadeh from the central defense area. All their balls lacked the accuracy for Azomun and Taremi to work with. Bahrain Team tried to take the match to the Iranians but their offensive moves were far too shy and when they reached Beiravand, none of the balls created anything serious for Team Melli.

What the Bahrain team excelled in, though, was the quick transformation to multi-layer defense whenever the Iranians were building their offensive moves. Building a solid impenetrable central defensive wall with numbers. That made the job of the Team Melli forwards that much difficult. The first real chance of scoring came in the 19th minute when Azmoun and Taremi beat the Bahrain defense offside trap, but Taremi wasted the opportunity heading high.

In the second half, Dragan Skocic did a masterclass by pulling Milad Mohammad out and sending Saman Ghoddos in. The result was swift and deadly. Skocic depleted the classic mass defense breaker by instructing his player to penetrate Bahrain’s solid defender from the middle playing one-two balls. Azmoun, from a clever pass that opened Bahrain defense wild, scored past the hapless Seyed Mohammed Jaffar in Bahrain goal. Six minutes later, Azmoun was on the end of a classic Saman Ghoddos defense-splitting pass, running with the ball powerfully and confidently to score again. 2-0 for Team Melli and Bahrain Team has a mountain to climb.

Seyed Mohammed Jaffar in Bahrain goals was the star of the Bahrain Team as the score margin would have been much higher if it was not for his heroics.

Mehdi Tarem scored Iran’s third from Ahamad Nourallahi’s assist after Torabi cleverly robbed the ball from Bahrain right back near the corner. Taremi on receiving the ball from Nourallahi, cooly wrong-footed Syed Jafar and scored the final goal.

It is a confidence-boosting win associated with a polished performance. Much credit has to go to the under-rated Dragan Skocic for his intelligent game-changing tactics and substitutions. Alireza Jahanbakhsh who disappointing against Hong Kong was given a rest with Ehsan Hajsafy taking his place. Azmoun and Taremi really clicked in this match, most probably after a long briefing by the coaching staff. Defenders were solid while the midfield played as well as they could under the circumstances.

The next Match against Cambodia might see a different lineup but with the same game plan. Iran is now second in the table behind Iraq.

Team Melli battles for qualification.

On Monday, Bahrain will be hosting Team Melli in one of the most peculiar of injustices of football. The match which is supposed to be the home game fr Iran is instead played in Bahrain! Never in the history of the FIFA World Cup, a team played both its home and away matches in one side’s venue like it is happening now with Iran.

Iran not only needs to battle the politics but pass a difficult hurdle in Bahrain Team, which to its credit, has been playing very good football through the preliminaries and now occupying the top of the table with 12 points. The battle between Iran and Bahrain promises to be a spectacular encounter, as a win for either side could make a huge difference in the final outcome of Group C.

Team Melli returned to form with their 3-1 win over Hong Kong last Thursday, reviving their top spot aspirations and with a match in hand, head coach Dragan Skocic will expect his side to take the game to hosts Bahrain. The weather on Monday at kick-off time is expected to be 35 degrees Celsius with a humidity of 39% with a wind speed of 26 Km/h. Generally speaking, it is a mildly warm day for Bahrain, which could have been much worst.l

Bahrain fancies their chances as they will head into the tie boosted by their win over Cambodia and, more importantly, in the knowledge that they have already defeated Iran in the Asian Qualifiers – with Mohamed Al Hardan scoring the only goal in their October 2019 meeting. Al Hardan will be missing due to an operation on his foot.

Iran’s strikeforce may be the most famous of the four lines with world-famous names like Taremi and Azmoun, however, the pair failed to score any of the three goals against Hong Kong in the last match. On the other hand, Komail Al Aswad, Ali Madan, and veteran striker Ismaeel Abdulatif all scored twice each against Cambodia and head coach Helio Sousa will be happy with the fact that his team has multiple sources for goals against a team seeking to qualify for their third consecutive FIFA World Cup Finals.

While Sousa was all praise for Team Melli during the press conference, it is no secret that he has been focusing on this match and considering it as a decider. A shrewd tactician who managed his squad rotation and substitution quite well during the Gulf Cup tournament of 2019 leading Bahrain to left the cup for the first time in their history.

Dragan Skocic has kept the starting line up close to his heart. In the Hong Kong match, when it was clear that the forwards were having difficulties, with few substitutes he revived the team. It is unknown if he will stick with Azamoun and Taremi, but most probably he will awaiting the deliveries of these two before any substitutions are carried out.

Off-field, the authorities have been hyping the fans who would be able to watch the match on TV only. Bahrain TV has broadcast that infamous match of World Cup 2002 qualifiers when Bahrain defeated Iran on the same ground to let Saudi Arabia go through.

Meanwhile, a source in the Iraqi Team delegation, confirmed, on Saturday, that Iraq Player, Ali Fayez, was infected with the Coronavirus. The source said in an interview with “Mawazine News” that “the Bahraini health authorities informed the team’s delegation of the positive corona result of  Ali Fayez.

According to the regulations, the player will be isolated from the rest and will not be appearing for his team in any further matches.

The source pointed out that “the Iraqi defender will miss the Asian qualifiers due to being quarantined in Bahrain.” The team’s delegation made several contacts with the Bahraini side to return the swab to the player Ali Fayez and to confirm that he was infected with the Coronavirus, so that the player was subjected to a second swab yesterday evening, Friday, the results of which appeared today, Saturday, and it was confirmed that the player was infected and who will be subject to quarantine for a period of ten days, which means his official absence from all the Iraq matches in the double Asian qualifiers against Cambodia, Hong Kong, and Iran.

Iran v Bahrain
Venue: Bahrain National Stadium, Riffa
Kick-off: 19:30 hours (UTC+3) – 21:00 Iran Time

Rank M W D L GF GA GD PTS
1 BAHRAIN 6 3 3 0 11 1 +10 12
2 IRAQ 5 3 2 0 9 2 +7 11
3 IRAN 5 3 0 2 20 4 +16 9
4 HONG KONG 6 1 2 3 4 8 -4 5
5 CAMBODIA 6 0 1 5 1 30 -29 1

The rich boys of Team Melli

Becoming a legionnaire is perhaps the dream of many young footballers all over the world.

Football has passed the stage of being a sport for fun and competition, it is now a business and a money-generating activity filled with fortunes. Not all the sources are clean money though as the sport is still suffering blatant money laundering schemes, however, at players’ level these sinister plots are invisible.

Iranian players have played in Europe from the onset. After the 1998 Fifa World Cup, the biggest number of Iranian players transferred to European leagues, specifically the Bundesliga. With the failure to qualify for the World Cup there were fewer suitors for Iranian players,  but the migration never completely stopped.

There are around 50 Iranian players exercising their profession outside of Iran. Europe, Persian Gulf states, and to a lesser extent the Far East have been the favorite destination.

The top earners are those who are successful and play in the European leagues. The Premier League is the richest league in the world and hence it is not a surprise that the top Iranian money earner comes from that league. Alireza Jahanbakhsh, who has been mostly a bench warmer in Brighton & Hove Albion, is the Top Earner of all Iranian footballers with a salary of nearly 4 million dollars per annum.

Iran’s best player of the season 2020/21 by far is Sardar Azmoun, yet he earns less than Jahanbakhsh. Taremi comes third in the table, despite his brilliant season with Porto, he earns half what Jahanbaksh earns with Brighton. Note that Brighton just avoided relegation in England while Porto defeated Chelsea, the current titleholder of the Champions League by the brilliant overhead kick by Taremi, ended the season in second place in Portugal.

In 4th position in the table is Saman Ghoddos who plays his football in the second tier club Brantford. The team from West London has won promotion to the premier league now,

 

 

Weekly Annual
Rank Player Club Wages US$ Wages US$
1 Alireza Jahanbakhsh Brighton  $ 75,260.00  $3,913,520.00
2 Sardar Azmoun Zenit  $ 62,480.00  $3,248,960.00
3 Mehdi Taremi FC Porto  $ 32,660.00  $1,698,320.00
4 Saman Ghoddos Brentford  $ 19,880.00  $1,033,760.00
5 Kaveh Rezai Charleroi  $ 17,040.00  $   886,080.00
6 Milad Mohammadi Gent  $ 12,638.00  $   656,040.00
7 Ali Alipour Maritimo  $   4,970.00  $   258,440.00
8 Ali Gholizadeh Charleroi  $   4,970.00  $   258,440.00
9 Reza Ghoochannejhad PEC Zwolle  $   3,834.00  $   169,832.00
10 Amir Abedzadeh Maritimo  $   2,130.00  $   102,240.00

Team Melli : Readniness and Analysis.

After a lot of huff and puff, threats, and taking the case to arbitration in CAS. Team Melli will have to play its return matches in the FIFA World Cup 2022 Qatar in one venue, Bahrain. Apart from the fact that this is also the home ground of one of its main rival teams in the group, the dates of the matches in the midst of heat and humidity is oneself the greatest challenge for Team Melli in Bahrain.

However, the challenges for Iran to qualify for the World Cup for the third time running is enormous and do not end at the obvious bias against the Iranians. Iran however, should brush the politics aside and focus on the field.

Dragan Skocis has been to Kish island to review the facilities as Team Melli will be camping in the Persian Gulf resort prior to the qualifications in June. The facilities, climate, and pitches are ideal for Team Melli to have good practice sessions.

In its only international friendly so far, Team Melli played an acceptable and satisfactory match against Syria winning by a 3-goal margin. The result, however, did not reflect the game as Syria was not deserving of a 3 goal defeat while Team Melli was not the dominant team of the match. In any case, Team Melli remains undefeated under Skocic and that is fine, except we have to remember that under the woeful Wilmots, the Belgian coach gave the fans a false impression of superiority as the results of victories in his first 3 matches.  So, while three wins out of three look good on paper and for the archive, however,  it could be misleading.

In this article, we will address what seems like a shortcoming observed in the last couple of years and in the team under Skocic.

Dysfunctional midfield.

Starting from the goalkeeper, it is quite safe to say that Team Melli is enriched by the presence of Alireza Beiranvand with capable replacements in the shape of Niazmand and Hamed Lak. Even third and fourth choice of keepers are dependable enough in the present squad.

The same can be said of the defense and forward line where Skocic is spoilt for choice. The two new debutants, Salmani and Jalai were excellent additions as they performed against Syria. It gives the fans a lot of confidence. In the forward line, there is no argument as Team Melli has its two most expensive and valuable assets in Azmoun and Taremi while Ansarifard, Sayyadmanesh, Shahbazadeh are all capable force on their own.

The worry is the midfield. With Shojaei and Dejagah leaving the team, a big gap is evident. Iran lacks a maestro in the midfield team, a strong player who can lead and dictate the pace against tough oppositions. With weaker, or less capable teams, coaches resort to a tactic where they fill the midfield with 5+1 players. The lone striker also becoming an additional midfield player.  As such, any opposing team that needs to score in such a scenario must have a strong capable midfield. A set of players who can break this 6 players midfield cum deep defense by skillful manipulation of the ball, quick passing and perimeter offensive crosses. Iran can find itself in such a situation against Bahrain and Iraq both of whom set deep and pounce on counterattacks.

 Vahid Amiri has been a regular for many years and he is a fine player too but hardly a player who would shine and play a leading role in a difficult match.

Ahmad Nourallahi has been steady lately and has fine attributes including some fierce long-range shots, but like his club mate, lacks the character and the leadership qualities in midfield. The team captain Ehsan Hajsafy is now operating in midfield. His defensive work is immaculate, but he has lost his offensive traits in changing his role from right back. The only dependable and consistent midfielder is Omid Ebrahimi. However, Ebrahimi is aging and in dire need of proper and quality support.

Azmoun and Taremi, need good supply of passes and crosses from their teammates to finish the job, particularly from the midfield players. Their value and importance will be diminished with an also-ran ineffective midfield. They need much better support and quality players behind them.

Players Mental toughness & Attitude.

Iranian players suffer from weak mental toughness. While physically they are amongst the best in Asia and when it comes to individual skills, the same can be claimed, their mentality, attitude, and professionalism are far from the best, in fact, it is a liability.

The reason behind this is debatable and needs and discussion of its own but signs of weak mental agility and professionalism are evident all the time. Many other weaker teams have noticed this weakness in Iranian players and at times they have cleverly taken advantage and managed to beat Iran.

There is a tendency for the Iranian players to become emotional and irrational under pressure. They easily lose their calm and concentration. Shrewd and crafty opponents use this weakness to intimidate and harass the Iranian players leading them to lose their temper and fall foul of the law.

The examples are aplenty and the solution is well beyond National Team coaches like Skocic. It is a cultural problem and starts from the roots. While the young talented kids grow up to become skillful players, in the midst of all that, the art of discipline, self-restraint, the rationale is not in the syllabus of Iranian coaches. Many of the coaches themselves lack these traits and are a bad example for the kids. Just switch on the TV and watch any Iranian league match and observe how the coaches behave on the touchline to get an idea.

All that Skocic can do at this stage is to remind his players over and over again,  to concentrate on playing football, and not to lose their heads under pressure. It also is a good idea for him to be a strict disciplinarian and to the level of banning players from the team if there are major disciplinary issues on the field or in training camp.

Although Carlos Queiroz was very good in the discipline department, he was not truly exemplary because he himself had short fuse and was liable to combust at any time.

Mehdi Taremi shines in FC Porto Rout of Farense.  

Mehdi Taremi scored twice for Porto and assisted a goal as Porto comfortably defeated second-to-last Farense 5-1 on Monday to keep Sporting Lisbon from winning its first Portuguese league title since 2002.

Taremi has taken his tally to 15 goals for his club and lies third in the Portuguese League top scorers list. The Swiss forward Haris Seferovic of Benfica is leading the table with 18 goals.

A draw or a Porto loss at home would have been enough to give Sporting its 19th league title. Only Porto and Benfica have won the competition since 2002.

The result moved Porto within five points of Sporting, which can still clinch the league with a win at home against relegation-threatened Boavista on Tuesday.

There will be two rounds left after the midweek games.

Mehdi Taremi opened the scoring for Porto with a penalty early in the match, while Toni Martínez, Luis Díaz and João Mário completed the rout.

Farense played a man down after Bilel Aouacheria was sent off in the 30th minute at Estadio do Dragão in Porto.

Iran’s Million EURO players

A total of 19 Iranian players have been valued at or above 1 million Euro. 

Sardar Azmoun, the Zenit forward is at the top of the list at € 23 mn followed by Mehdi Taremi of Porto FC with € 13 mn.

Both these players have been making the headlines recently. Taremi has made plenty of waves after that spectacular scissors kick goal against Chelsea in addition to his earlier goal in the previous round against Juventus in the UEFA Champions League. Taremi did his reputation a world of good by such performance and consequently his market value which is expected to increase significantly in the coming months.

Azmoun, on the other hand, has been slotting them in with Zenit. He is top of the Russian Premier League goal scorers chart with 15 goals.

Despite the quoted figures by TransferMarket, a specialist website that monitors players’ values and transfers, it is highly unlikely that Zenit or Porto will part with their respective Iranian players at those prices. Azmoun will not be released for less than 50 million euros, while Taremi is approaching the €30 million mark.

However, the rest of the legionnaires have not fared anywhere near the exceptional Azmoun and Taremi. Alireza Jahanbakhsh has seen his value spiral dive after two disappointing seasons in the Premier League with Brighton.

The highest valued domestic league player is Mehdi Ghaedi who is valued at  €1,6 million and sits at number 11 on the list. Two players who are not in this current list but making significant progress should appear in the chart soon (their value top the €1 million). These two are club mates Shahab Zahedi and Allahyar Sayyadmanesh of the Ukrainian club Vorya.

 

LIST OF TOP VALUED IRANIAN PLAYERS

 

# Player Age Market value million in US$
1 Sardar Azmoun 26  €       23.00  $         27,558,600.00
2 Mehdi Taremi 28  €       13.00  $         15,576,600.00
3 Alireza Jahanbakhsh 27  €         5.00  $           5,991,000.00
4 Ali Gholizadeh 25  €         4.00  $           4,792,800.00
5 Kaveh Rezaei 29  €         3.20  $           3,834,240.00
6 Saman Ghoddos 27  €         3.00  $           3,594,600.00
7 Milad Mohammadi 27  €         2.80  $           3,354,960.00
8 Mehrdad Mohammadi 27  €         2.50  $           2,995,500.00
9 Alireza Beiranvand 28  €         2.00  $           2,396,400.00
10 Karim Ansarifard 31  €         1.80  $           2,156,760.00
11 Mehdi Ghayedi 22  €         1.60  $           1,917,120.00
12 Sadegh Moharrami 25  €         1.50  $           1,797,300.00
13 Ahmad Nourollahi 28  €         1.40  $           1,677,480.00
14 Amir Abedzadeh 27  €         1.30  $           1,557,660.00
15 Majid Hosseini 24  €         1.20  $           1,437,840.00
16 Ehsan Hajsafi 31  €         1.10  $           1,318,020.00
17 Mehdi Torabi 26  €         1.10  $           1,318,020.00
18 Morteza Pouraliganji 28  €         1.00  $           1,198,200.00
19 Amir Arsalan Motahari 28  €         1.00  $           1,198,200.00

Taremi scores sensational bicycle kick against Chelsea

Sérgio Conceição’s side had lost 2-0 to Chelsea last week at Seville’s Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium.

Taremi played in the last 30 minutes but in that half an hour he created magic that will be talked about for a long time.  His bicycle kick just inside the box went to the roof of the goal leaving Chlsea’s keeper Mendy motionless.

Taremi became the first Iranian player to score a goal in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals. With such a goal, it is quite likely that he will be nominated for Puskas Trophy for the year’s best goal. That would be a dream achievement for the Iraninan football.

Unfortunately, Taremi can easily be his worst enemy due to weak self-control and poor mental toughness. Taremi missed the the first leg against Chelsea because he was sent off in the previous round against Juventus for what looked like one of the most stupid send offs in the history of the Championship league. The term childish and stupid was repeated by all pundits commenting on this act that seriously lacked professionalism. He was suspended for the next crucial match against Chlesa. Porto, without Taremi, lost 2-0 in the home leg.

In the return leg and after that wonder goal, Taremi was back to his worst behaviour and could not keep his mouth shut, getting a late yellow card for dissent after he protested a referee call.

 

World Cup qualifiers: Iranians query decision to host matches in Bahrain

Iran head coach Dragan Skocic and Mehdi Taremi, one of the nation’s highest-profile players, have questioned the decision to hold the country’s World Cup qualifiers in Bahrain when play resumes in June.

The Iranians were informed by the Asian Football Confederation last week that the Gulf state will host the remaining matches in group C of the second round of the competition, which also features Iraq, Cambodia, and Hong Kong.

“I am wondering when these biased AFC decisions against Iranian football will come to an end,” the striker posted on Twitter.

“Bahrain’s heat and a whole host of other reasons are making me wonder, why there? I am still thinking about why these decisions do not come to an end. We have suffered our whole lives, this is just another one.”

Head coach Skocic, appointed in February 2020 to replace Marc Wilmots, also took to social media to query the decision, saying it was not made in the best interests of all the participants.

“In the session which was held to talk about the postponement of the matches, Bahrain’s representative, without any introduction, talked about hosting the remaining matches and it was the thing that surprised me the most,” the Croatian wrote in a post on Instagram.

“In my opinion, the AFC should have found a solution that equally benefits everyone – not one team – and made a decision according to the spirit of sport.

“But in the end, all the teams have to face us and we will undoubtedly have a strong presence and surpass this situation.”

The AFC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 Iraq leads the standings with Bahrain in second, while Iran, which has qualified for the last two World Cups, is in third, five points behind the leader with a game in hand.

Only the group winners of each of the eight groups in the second round of Asian qualifying are guaranteed to advance to the next phase of the competition.

Matches are due to be played from May 31 until June 15 after the COVID-19 pandemic saw all of Asia’s World Cup qualifiers postponed during 2020.