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1 hour ago
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Key events
65 min Lukebakio tries a curler, seeking the far corner, and again, Beiranvend is equal to the effort, palming away, then Iran win a corner, send it to the back stick, and Khalilzadeh is up … but heads wide.
63 min “Poor old Andrew Cole always got harshly judged,” reckons Dennis Hamer. “I think because he was an efficient but unpretty finisher, really good at toe poke type shots and the like – Ronaldo 1 was the same, of course, but people never seemed to mind as much.”
He did have a slightly fidgety style, but he really suffered form Glenn Hoddle saying he needed six or seven chances to score a single goal. Which, if true, told us he had brilliant movement and anticipation – he did – and it’s worth bearing in mind his numbers were always high, without penalties.
59 min HOW DO BELGIUM FAIL TO SCORE?! A lovely pass over the top from Trosard is gorgeously controlled by De Bruyne, a single caress taming it close to the by-line. He crosses low and hard, but somehow, Nemati blocks then, when De Cuyper shoots from close range, Beirenvand somehow leaps from the ground to palm away. That is ludicrous behaviour from the keeper, who’s having a stormer.
58 min Changes for Belgium, Meunier, Raskin and Saelemaekers going off with Castagne, Lukebakio and Vanaken replacing them.
57 min I see the Courtois save again, a beat away from a Taremi swivel-and-shot.
55 min “It is absolutely ridiculous that your butt can be offside,” reckons Robin Griller. “The rule should be simplified to: if neither of your feet are offside, you are not offside, in which case GOOOOAAALLLL!!!!!”
It’s always been any part of your body with which you can legally play the ball, which I think is fair in concept, but perhaps feet would simplify things. It’d be a better tweak to the law than Wenger’s, I think.
53 min Courtois saves Belgium again! I don’t actually see what happens because my coverage jumps, we’ve not been allowed a replay, and there’s no option to take coverage backwards, but I see the ball hit the keeper, hard.
51 min How Belgium wish they still had Marouane Fellaini; at 38, I reckon he could still do a job off the bench but, alas, he’s retired. Back in the now, Tielemans cleverly allows the ball through his legs and De Bruyne crosses for Trossard who can’t quite get his head around it, sending an effort over … then the flag goes up for offside.
50 min This time, he raises both arms and drills a ridiculous pass over the Saelemaekers at the back post, who makes decent connection with his volley but doesn’t have enough angle with which to play, lashing into the near-post side-netting.
49 min De Bruyne’s delivery is good, but when the ball is headed behind for a corner, his next effort is poor … but it wins him a further opportunity.
47 min Trossard is down and looks in pain, head down and body shaking. I didn’t quite see what happened, but just as I’m fearing for him he begins the long ascent to uprightness, then we see studs raked down his calf, a huge hole ripped in his sock. Free-kick Belgium, deep inside the Iran half, out on the right.
47 min Nice from Trossard, who moves infield then feeds De Bruyne outside him; the eventuating shot is blocked by Kanani.
46 min We go again, Iran replacing Hardani with Jahanbakhsh. I wonder if they’re moving to four at the back, because nominally, that’s an attacker for a defender.
Half-time email: Dave Estherby has some thoughts on our prolific scorer/poor finisher conversation: Averaged a goal every two games across his career but couldn’t hit a barn door at Man Utd (or Inter, thinking about it).”
Harsh, I’d say – he wasn’t quite good enough for United, but without him they don’t win the title in 2002-03. He had an unusual ability either to make things happen or turn up as they were happening, but he couldn’t always take advantage. See also: Nuñez, Darwin.
For those wondering, Markwayne was named after his two uncles, and now I wish my parents had called me Davidgeoffrey.
Alexander Abnos
An always-political football team were party to yet another political storyline in the lead-up to this game. Just before kickoff, Iran’s national football federation responded forcefully to comments made by US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin on Fox News on Sunday, calling them “false, fabricated, and entirely baseless allegations”.
It’s a little unclear from Mullin’s appearance what those allegations really are. Appearing on Fox News, he said that the federation “tried to get somebody in yesterday that they were calling, he was supposed to be the president of the … federation. When we started doing the research on him he had only been put in place since 2022 and we didn’t allow him to board the plane.”
The president of the Iranian football federation since 2022 is Mehdi Taj, who seems to be the person Mullin was referring to. However, Taj was reportedly one of the initial 15 members of the Iran delegation whose US visas were denied, necessitating their move of home base ot Mexico just before the tournament. That status reportedly had not changed in the buildup to Iran’s second match.
Mullin later alleged that a person trying to get on the team plane had “direct ties to the IRGC”, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In its statement, the federation called the allegation that a person was denied entry “an outright and undeniable lie” and demanded evidence of the claimed IRGC ties.
HALF-TIME: Belgium 0-0 Iran
When a team defend with discipline, structure and composure, it’s not at all easy to break them down.
45+8 min Ngoy finds De Bruyne down the left with a fine pass, the cross is decent too … but Lukaku can’t quite get at it.
45+7 min Iran get the ball forward, a good 30 seconds consumed in the process. Belgium have, I think, approached breaking them down in the right way, but they’ve lacked a bit of quality, while the box-defending has been good.
45+5 min Nice from Belgium, Ngoy punching a pass seeking Saelemaekers, cunningly touched into his path by Meunier. But as he nashes into space down the right, the flag goes up for offside, and Iran will shortly be halfway there.
45+3 min If they can refrain from conceding in the next five minutes, Iran can be very pleased with their first-half efforts. As I type, Belgium go again with a pass into Lukaku, on the edge, who does well to turn and beat one challenge. But as he tries to bundle though a second, Kanani, Ezatolahi and Nemati gang up and crowd him out.
45+1 min We’ll have eight additional minutes.
45 min “The letter of the law was upheld on Taremi’s strike, but surely not the spirit of the law,” reckons Stefan Martens.. If only Arsene Wenger’s daylight offside rule, as piloted right now in the Canadian Premier League, were in effect here, we’d have been treated to a delightful goal.
Still, if Fifa can invent a peace prize to give to Donald Trump, I demand an award for best moment at the World Cup. In that case, Iran’s free kick would certainly be in the running (alongside my other main candidate, Behruzjon Karimov’s thunderstrike against Colombia).”
I’m afraid I can’t agree with this – I loved the idea and execution, but it needed to be perfect and wasn’t. More generally, I think Wenger’s innovation gives the attacker too much of an advantage – I want the game to be balanced more than I want to see more goals.
44 min Tielemans in behind for De Cuyper, whose instashot is drilled hard … and intro Beiranvad’s chest. Then, when Belgium go again, Saelemaekers’ shot is blocked by Hajisafi.
42 min De Cuyper, out on the touchline, rips a terrific pass over the top for De Bruyne, attacking the space in behind for the first time. He doesn’t quite track it over his shoulder, though, waving a toe at it and conceding a goalkick.
40 min “Robson-Kanu!!” screams Matt Dony. “Turns out scoring beautiful goals on the turn against Belgium at major tournaments isn’t for everyone…”
I love the name Robson-Kanu on the basis a chimera of Bryan and Nwankwo might be my favourite combination of any two players I could possibly think of.
39 min De Bruyne allows De Cuyper to take it, and Iran clear his delivery easily enough.
38 min De Bruyne hurdles by Hajisafi, who manages to bring him down anyway. Free-kick Belgium, 25 yards out, left of centre.
37 min Iran, I think, did well for the break to come when it did, Belgium forced to get themselves going again. Their defensive discipline has been good so far.
35 min Duncan McQueen reckons Andy Cole is a prolific striker with dodgy finishing, a suggestion I couldn’t agree with less. An absolutely brilliant finisher – 41 goals in 93-94, when he was mainly a one-touch merchant, but by the time he bagged 24 in 98-99 and 22 in 99-00, he was scoring goals only he could – in the second of those, he managed three overhead kicks before Xmas.
33 min Tielemans allows the ball to run past him, turning Ezatolahi in the process … who pulls him back and is booked.
31 min Tell you what, though, in the UK this is rapidly becoming Emma Hayes time, and she shows us that Meunier is inverting to allow an extra man on the last line. Then, showing here growing confidence in doing her own thing, she thanks her dad on Father’s Day for giving her the confidence to do what she does, turning around to reveal the words “SHE’LL CHANGE THE WORLD” on the back of her top. She is brilliant.
30 min Just as I’m checking they’ve not cancelled the ad breaks without telling me, the ref blows for one. The roof is on, the aircon likewise.
29 min Shock survived, Belgium are right back on to the attack, Meunier crossing from the right seeking Lukaku, and Beiranvand claiming confidently.
NO GOAL! Belgium 0-0 Iran
Open and shut, I’m afraid – the goal, that is – and a beautiful piece of imagination and preparation is for nowt.
26 min But was Taremi offside? Back to goal, I fear his buttocks have let him down.
WHAT A GOAL! Belgium 0-1 Ian (Taremi 25)
WHAT A MOMENT! Hajidsafi makes to curl a blockbuster but pulls his foot at the last millisecond, instead caressing a delicate pass down the side of the wall and through the heart of the Belgium defence. But there’s still graft to graft and lots of it, Taremi’s trap-and-turn perfectly executed, the care he takes over the touch reminiscent of Undav’s yesterday, then he turns and drags a finish into the corner! Iran lead, and that is unreal conduct!
24 min Rezaeian manages to direct the ball into Raskin’s hand – not enough for a free-kick, in mine, but the ref gives on and Iran have a free-kick 25 yards out…
22 min And here come Belgium again, Tielemans picked out on the left side of the box. He shoots with his laces, but Beirenvand shoves around the near post for a corner … which comes to nowt.
21 min Again, Belgium have Iran boxed, and they’re trying to pop the ball about quickly, combination play one of the main ways low blocks are deconstructed. The power on the passes has been a little too much so far, but that’s the side on which to err – when played well, the pace allows the recipient to use it to shift and shoot.
19 min "“Starting with Lukaku is a bad idea, reckons Krisnamoorthy V. “He is likely to now earn a 2nd yellow card and leave Belgium to play with 10 men. Lukaku is a super sub and that’s what his role should be. If he makes it to half-time without another yellow , the wisest thing would be to bring him off.”
I’m not sure about that – he’s not someone i associate with ill discipline. Ill finishing, for sure – I can’t think of anyone as prolific whose goalscoring I believe in less – but I don’t expect him to let his team down by getting himself dismissed.
17 min Tielemans tries a pass through the middle, seeking to meet Lukaku’s run, but puts just too much on it.
15 min Rezaeian’s corner is a goodun too, picking out Ezatolahi at the back post … but he can only head wide of it.
14 min But here come Iran, Lukaku heading clear Taremi’s cross, but Iran sustain the attack, sending the ball back into the box, and after a bobble or two, it drops for Kanani, up with the attack for reasons known best to himself, and on the half-turn he shoots. It looks like Courtois has gone too late but, perhaps minding the unusual flight of the ball they’re using, almost waits for it to bounce before plunging to his right and tipping behind. Excellent save.
