- Macdara Ferris
- Fri, Jun 15 2018
Macdara Ferris reports from the St Petersburg Stadium
Iran came out on top in St Petersburg with a massive helping hand from Morocco as Team Melli left it even later than Uruguay’s winner earlier on in the day.
The unfortunate Azia Bouhaddouz was the Moroccan player who, In dramatic fashion five minutes into injury time, saw his header fly by his own ‘keeper for what proved the only goal of the game. It is only Iran’s second ever World Cup win.
Morocco hadn’t concede a goal in their qualifying group, keeping six cleans sheets, but their 18-match unbeaten run came to an end on their first return to a World Cup since France ’98.
Looking back at the qualifying records for both teams, it probably wasn’t too surprising that it was a tight affair. The Iranians used their deffensive solidity and managed to build on their record dozen consecutive clean sheets that they claimed in qualifying for back-to-back finals for the very first time.
The pressure for victory in this opening game was massive with matches against Portugal and Spain to come for both sides in Group B. A draw didn’t really suit either team and something needed to give, and ultimately it fell to Iran but it wasn’t a victory that they really deserved.
The first of four group games in St Petersburg didn’t exactly get the hearts racing of the locals – with Russia, Brazil and Argentina due here in the next couple of weeks.
It was pretty much a full house at kick off with just a few hundred empty seats in the 64,250 capacity Zenit Arena, the venue the second largest capacity in the tournament.
Those that were in attendance for the 4pm kick off local time included very vocal travelling support for both Morocco and Iran, many with vuvuzelas, and even with the roof open, it was a deafening atmosphere.
Morocco piled the pressure on the Iranians in the opening period and it was remarkable that Hervé Renard’s men couldn’t find a goal in that half or indeed the game as a whole.
Having said all that however they were probably lucky not to have found themselves a goal down at half time, after ‘keeper Monir El Kajoui was called into his first real action of the game two minutes from the break, where he was required to pull off a super double save.
Team Melli were able to break from deep after Omid Ebrahimi took the ball off Younes Belhanda and broke upfield. Sardar Azmoun took one touch too many and that allowed the Moroccan goalkeeper close him down to save.
The rebound fell to the Dutch Eredvisie top scorer for this season, but AZ Alkmaar’s striker Alireza Jahanbakhsh made a hash of his volley and allowed the ‘keeper to save.
Prior to that though it was all Morocco. After just two minutes, Amine Hart had sliced across his shot with the goal at his mercy. The Atlas Lions won a couple of quick corners all within the opening five minutes.
Ayoub El Kaabi was wasteful with a shot, with Younes Belhanda doing likewise with a header. On the half hour mark Amine Harit did at least get his shot on target but the Schalke man could only watch on as Ali Beiranvand cleanly caught his shot.
Carolos Quieroz’s words of encouragement at half time helped his team who were better with their possession after the break. The high tempo from Morocco dropped and they settled into playing the ball around and probing for weaknesses in the Iranian back line.
He brought his captain Masoud Shojaei off mid-way through the second half with Mehdi Taremi coming on and Ehasan Haji Safi taking over the captain’s armband.
There was a flurry of late substitutes as some players seemed to struggle with the competitive action after all the recent friendlies. Morocco went close with Hakim Ziyach’s left foot shot after Younes Belhanda’s handy header down into the path of the Ajax player.
However Iran got a free kick deep injury time wide on the left. It was whipped into the danger zone and it proved disasterous for Morocco.
Herve Renard’s men will feel really hard done by that the couldn’t at the very least see out the game for a point or in reality grab a goal that the dominance deserved.
They will have to pick themselves up as they take on Portugal in Moscow next. Speaking in the post-match press conference, it was a dispirited Moroccan manager who rued missing out not just on one point but all three points.
"I am very disappointed," said Renard. "If I had come to this press conference with a draw, I would still have been disappointed. You can imagine of what the defeat means as we had many opportunities to score."
The Iranians meanwhile will take on Spain with confidence in Kazan in their second game having claimed all three points in dramatic late late fashion on edge of the Gulf of Finland.
Morocco: Monir El Kajoui; Achraf Hakimi, Mehdi Benatia ©, Romain Saiss; Mbark Boussoufa, Hakim Ziyech, Karim El Ahmadi, Amine Harit (Manuel Da Costa 82);Noureddine Amrabat (Sofyan Amrabat 76), Ayoub El Kaabi (Aziz Bouhaddouz 77), Younes Belhanda
Subs not used: Yassine Bounou, Ahmad Reda Tagnaouti, Badr Benoun, Hamza Mendyl, Nabil Dirar, Mehdi Hamza Mendyl, Youssef Ait Bennasser, Faycal Fajr, Carcela, , Khalid Boutaib.
Booked: Karim El Ahmadi (34).
Iran: Ali Beiranvand; Ramin Rezaeian, Roozbeh Cheshmi, Morteza Pouraliganji; Karim Ansarifard, Omid Ebrahimi (Pejman Montazeri 80), Ehsan Haji Safi, Masoud Shojaei © (Mahdi Taremi 68); Alireza Jahanbakhsh (Saman Ghoddos 85), Sardar Azmoun, Vahid Amiri.
Subs not used: Rashid Mazaheri, Amir Abedzadeh, Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh, Seyed Majid Hosseini, Ashkan Dejagah, Milad Mohammadi, Mahdi Torabi, Reza Ghoochannejhad
Booked: Masoud Shojaei (10), Alireza Jahanbakhsh 47)
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey).
Attendance: 62,548.
Extratime.ie Player of the Match: Amine Harit (Morocco)
