A Crucial encounter against the Uzbeks on Sunday

Tashkent : Team Melli will be commencing the long and arduous road to Brazil 2014 for the qualification to the FIFA World Cup by playing away to Uzbekistan on Sunday. While Uzbekistan had a very impressive qualification record in round 3 topping its group that had Japan , the current Asian Champion as the favorite , the Uzbeks will be handicapped by the absence of several key players.

Team Melli , who will have Askan Dejagheh on the bench still not fully fit , while Mohammd Ghazi is definitely out, is still not full strength but still better than the Uzbeks who faces the loss of 5 major players due mixture of suspensions and injury. However, it would be truly unwise to consider that as a major blow for the Central Asian team who has a mixture of experience and youth in its squad.

The match is expected to be a tight affair between the two teams who are amongst the favorite in addition to Republic of Korea.

Team Melli, has been stuttering on the field and none of the results or performances during the matches against weak games have been very encouraging. However, the Persian have always shown a resolute attitude when it matters and the fans count on such attitude to pass the first hurdle in Tashkent successfully.

With the last minute arrival from Dubai of Al Wasl midfielder , Mohammad Reza Khalatbary , the squad had its last member and headed for the Uzbek capital from its Turkish camp in Istanbul.

The previous records between the two teams augur well for Team Melli. They have never lost to Uzbekistan since their first encounter back in 1998 when Team Melli defeated the Uzbeks 4-0 courtesy of a hat trick by Ali Daei and a goal by Ali Mousavi in the last the Asian Games where teams had their full squads.

Queiroz “Regardless to the result of the match , I wishthat Iran and Uzbekistan qualify from this group.

In the pre-match news conference, Queiroz said that regardless to the result of the match , he wished that Iran and Uzbekistan qualify from this group. On the issue of 5 key players absent form Uzbekistan , Queiroz said “I do not think that this a crucial issue for us. This team is quite strong and with many players missing , they managed to defeat Japan. So , in such caliber of a team , the absence of few players does not make a big dent in its abilities. We take our opposition seriously despite these absentees”