FIFA Ranking
23
Finals
0
Last World Cup
20182018 (GS)
Best Performance
Iran qualified for this winter’s World Cup with 3 games to spare and will be vying to escape the group stages for the first time in their history this year. It will be sixth time that they will feature in the World Cup finals and they have made it to their third straight tournament, cementing their status as one of Asia’s elite footballing nations. They picked up only their second win in tournament history last time around in Russia, where they beat Morocco in their curtain raiser thanks to a stoppage time own goal, but defeat to Spain and a draw against Portugal were not enough to see them make it out the group. Their only other win in the history of the World Cup came in 1998 where they defeated USA, a side they will face again this time out.
Player to Watch
At the age of 27, Azmoun is already the third highest goalscorer for Iran, and though he has a ways to go before reaching the record of Ali Daei, he should be confident of reaching second place soon enough with 10 more goals needed to reach Karim Bagheri’s record. Having played most of his career in Russia, where he became the second most expensive Iranian of all time when he moved to Zenit, he transferred to German giants Bayer Leverkusen last January.
Squad List