The head coach of Iran’s Team Melli says his team did not deserve the losses against Bahrain and Iraq!

Marc Wilmots, in the post-match press conference following the loss to Iraq, said  “We had a tough 15 minutes at the start of the game. Then we conceded a goal but soon recovered and took control. We made some mistakes in the second half and we ended up with 10 players. This defeat forces us to get maximum points out of the remaining matches in order to advance to the next round.”

Asked what plans he has to achieve this qualification, Wilmots responded:

 “We are doing our best for home games as well as the one away game against Cambodia,”. Commenting on his team’s two consecutive World Cup qualifying defeats, The Belgian coach said” We could have at least got two points in the two games against Bahrain and Iraq, but that didn’t happen. Perhaps it is better to say that we were unlucky and both matches could have ended in a draw”

Wilmots commenting on the playing conditions and whether the defeat was a consequence of the red card given to Team Melli’s Captain Masoud Shojaei “ I have been in football for 30 years. One should never blame any individual for a defeat. We are all to be blamed for the failure and not just one player. We had some mistakes in this game. We made some mistakes in defensive covering. On top of that, we were short in the last 10 minutes.” Wilmot’s claims that some the Iranian media is blaming the failure on the absence of Jahanbakhsh and Saeid Ezatollahei. “ It is not like what it sounds. Jahanbakhsh and Ezatollahei have not played for a while. In addition, we did not have Haji Safi due to injury in the match.”