Iran lineup for 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers named
Head coach of Iran's national football team Carlos Queiroz has announced the names on the final roster of the squad for the forthcoming encounters against Qatar and China at the third round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament.
On Saturday, the 64-year-old Portuguese picked Alireza Beiranvand, Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri and Mohammad Reza Akhbari as goalkeepers.
Vouria Ghafouri, Ramin Rezaeian, Pejman Montazeri, Morteza Pouraliganji, Seyyed Jalal Hosseini, Ezzatollah Pourghaz, Mohammad Ansari, Milad Mohammadi will join the Iranian outfit as defenders.
Omid Ebrahimi, Ehsan Hajsafi, Saeed Ezzatollahi, Ali Karimi, Masoud Shojaei, Vahid Amiri and Alireza Jahanbakhsh will be playing as midfielders.
Moreover, Mehdi Taremi, Reza Ghoochannejhad, Karim Ansarifard, Sasan Ansari and Sardar Azmoun have been selected to play as forwards during Team Melli’s upcoming matches.
The Iran men’s national football team will play against Qatar in the third round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament on March 23.
The game will be start at the multi-purpose Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in the Qatari capital city of Doha at 7 p.m. local time (1600 GMT)
Team Melli will take on the Chinese national football team, nicknamed Team Dragon, at Tehran’s Azadi Stadium at 4:30 p.m. local time (1230 GMT) five days later.
Iran is pitted against South Korea, Uzbekistan, China, Qatar and Syria in Group A of the third round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament.
Asian powerhouse Japan is drawn in Group B, and has joined Australia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq and Thailand.
The winner and runner-up of each group (four teams in total) will qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, while the third-placed teams of each group (two teams in total) will head to the play-off round of the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
The winner of the Asian play-off round will then face twice the fourth-placed squad in the fifth round of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) qualifying games.
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