Iran will look to continue their impressive World Cup qualifiers (WCQ) campaign when they welcome the United Arab Emirates to Tehran on Tuesday.
Venue: Azadi Stadium (Tehran)
Key Statistics
Iran have won 13 of their last 14 games (D1).
They have kept clean sheets in ten clean sheets in their last 14 games.
The hosts are unbeaten in the current WCQ campaign(W6, D1).
United Arab Emirates have won their last two WCQ games.
They have lost three of their last five away games in all competitions.
The visitors have conceded five goals and scored just six times in seven games.
Head to head
Both sides have clashed on 15 occasions in the past, and Iran are yet to lose a game against the UAE.
The hosts have 11 wins to their name, while four previous matches have ended in a share of the spoils.
Latest performances in all competitions
Iran: W-W-W-D-W
UAE: W-L-L-W-W
Iran
After confirming their place in the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Iran will look to continue their impressive run in the qualifiers.
The hosts booked their place in the November tournament year when they claimed a hard-earned 1-0 victory over rivals Iraq in Tehran last Thursday. After missing several clear-cut scoring chances in the first half, 29-year-old forward Mehdi Taremi finally broke the deadlock three minutes after the break to take maximum home points for Dragan Skocic’s men.
Iran have been very dominant in this phase of the tournament and have picked up an impressive 13 wins and one draw since a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Iraq in the second round of World Cup qualifying games back in 2019.
In that period, they have scored 36 goals while conceding four and keeping 10 clean sheets in that time.
With their place in Qatar secured, Skocic will now begin laying the building blocks for the November tournament, where they will look to surpass their run in Russia four years ago. Iran crashed out in the group stages in that tournament after finishing third in Group B with four points from three games.
Possible Iran starting line-ups
Amir Abedzadeh (GK); Sadegh Moharrami, Shojae Khalilzadeh, Milad Mohammadi, Omid Noorafkan; Alireza Jahanbakhsh, Saeid Ezatolahi, Vahid Amiri; Karim Ansarifard, Mehdi Taremi, Kaveh Rezaei.
Injured: None
COVID-19: Alireza Beiranvand
Suspended: None
UAE
The United Arab Emirates made it two wins from two World Cup qualifying games when they defeated struggling Syria 2-0 on home turf.
The hosts took the lead through Caio Canedo on the stroke of halftime before substitute Yahya Alghassani ensured the result after replacing Khalil Ibrahim in the 69th minute.
The win ensured that their chances of qualifying for the playoff places remained intact. The Whites have now picked up nine points from seven games to sit third in the table with a healthy four-point lead over fourth-place Lebanon.
With just three games left to play, Bert van Marwijk’s side knows that they cannot afford to drop more points if they want to end their two-decade absence from the World Cup.
Possible UAE starting line-ups
Ali Khasif (GK); Walid Abbas, Shahin Abdurrahman, Mohammed Al-Attas, Mahmoud Khamees; Ali Salmeen, Bandar Al-Ahbabi, Abdullah Ramadan; Caio Canedo, Ali Saleh, Sebastian Tagliabue.
Injured: None
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Prediction
Iran 2-1 UAE
