Their discipline and shape were fantastic, Alireza Haghighi made the requisite saves when required and the players were confident in their ability on the ball to dribble around their Argentine opposition in order to keep possession. They also had a few good opportunities to score. Dejagah had a header saved by Sergio Romero with the stopper also denying Reza Ghoochannejhad twice.
That it took a Lionel Messi special to deny the Iranians a much-deserved point will be of no consolation for Carlos Quieroz’s men but one cannot deny that the men in red performed fantastically well.
4. “But I got the ball ref!”
Iran was denied a cast iron penalty in the 54th minute when Pablo Zabaleta brought down Ashkan Dejagah. The Manchester City man slid in as Dejagah was nipping ahead of him. Zabaleta got the slightest of touches on the ball but clearly took out the man. The usual refrain from the offending player is that they ‘got the ball’ however in those circumstances slight contact with the ball does not excuse taking out the man. The referee, who perhaps wasn’t in the best of positions to judge, did the Iranians no favour and as it turned out denied the Asian football giants a shot at a famous result.
5. The Iranians have shown us they can defend
Now they will need to demonstrate that they are clinical in front of goal too. After securing a 0-0 draw with Nigeria and nearly achieving the same result against Argentina, Carlos Queiroz’s side is in with a chance of qualifying for the knock out stages. But to do that Iran will have to abandon their defensive strategy and play a more expansive game. Whilst they demonstrated an attacking threat against Argentina, Iran will need to score and win against Bosnia and Herzegovina in order to progress.
Can the Iranian’s attack whilst keeping their defensive resilience or will opening up be too alien to their sensibilities and leave them vulnerable?
Yes, indeed there were a few lessons from this match. I personally feel Iran won this match seeing the game passed the score line and considering them not being able to prepare properly due to political sanction against their country. oh, and the Siberian referee will never have to pay for his food visiting Argentina.