This is hardly a do-or-die match for Team Melli, nevertheless a crucial one in the FIFA World Cup qualifiers double header.  They don’t come more difficult than that as the first match tomorrow in Tashkent is against table leader Uzbekistan with maximum points from two matches, followed by a home game on Tuesday against their nemesis, South Korea.

Iran is setting comfortably between these two opponents in the table with 4 points, a narrow defeat in Tashkent will not be the end of the road, but a good result in Azadi is crucial.

Queiroz has managed to build a solid back line and his defensive mentality has served the team quite well so far. However, this team needs winners as it needs to score goals. The ingredients are there but what is lacking though is a game plan that can surprise the opponents most of whom are so familiar with Queiroz mentality and can so neutralize Team Melli with ease.

In fairness to the coach, it is difficult to blame him entirely for the futile offence as the feeding of balls to the forward line has been seriously flawed. Ashakn Dejagah , who is the midfield dynamo and a player that the team depends on so strongly in midfield has not been firing on all cylinders. He lacked precision and seemed to run short of ideas at crucial moments. Ezatolahie who has shown a remarkable progress in his club still could not run the midfield with the efficiency that senior players can. Teymourian will be too occupied with his defensive duties and would not venture too deep either.

So, it is left to the qualities of the balls from the flanks to create much of the offensive weapons where Sardar Azmoun will be waiting and fighting the battle against the tall and strong Uzbeks. Mentioning Sardar, who has been a true revelation for Iran, he really needs to be at his best in these two matches

It is all a question of will. Does Queiroz have the guts to surprise the Uzbek at their own home or will he maintain his cautious approach? Most probably it will be the latter with the Portuguese coach who is much more comfortable holding back rather than venturing forward.

Samvel Babayan, Uzbekistan
“Thursday’s game see us come up against the group favorites. They are the number one ranked team in Asia and they have many high level players playing at European teams. But we have studied Iran very well and we will try to show good football.

“They are all strong teams at this stage of qualifying. For example, Syria showed a good performance against both us and Korea Republic in the first two matches. Each game we play becomes the most important game at this stage. But we are thinking only of Iran now. We watched many of their games and we will try to find way to beat them. My players are ready for any situation in the match and our aim is to win.”

Carlos Queiroz, Iran
“We will play against the best team in our group on Thursday. Uzbekistan won their first two matches and are leaders in Group A. Nonetheless, my team will try to secure the win for the Iranian people. My team is clearly improving year on year. When I began to work in Iran we had only one player playing for a European side, now we have 11 who are at various clubs in Europe.

“[Ashkan] Dejagah and [Alireza] Jahanbakhsh were injured some time ago, but they have recovered and are ready to play against Uzbekistan. It is good news for Iran and bad news for Uzbekistan. Of course, Iran has star players aside from those two, we are a team not individuals, and we have no player selection issues for the game.”