Iran's Team Melli loses World Cup warm up to Turkey
Iran's Team Melli has lost 2-1 to Turkey's national team in a warm-up match for the 2018 Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup.
Carlos Queiroz’s squad faced Mircea Lucescu's men at the Basaksehir Fatih Terim Stadium in Istanbul on Monday.
A left-footed shot from the center of the box by Turkey's Cenk Tosun opened the scoring in the sixth minute. And another shot from Tosun in the 50th minute brought the score to 2-0 for Turkey.
Omer Bayram stopped the ball with his hand on the goal line in the 91st minute that led to a red card for him and a penalty shot for Iran, which Ashkan Dejagah put into the bottom left corner for a consolation goal for Team Melli.
Iran and Turkey men’s national football teams have already played each other seven times.
The Turkish side has won five of the matches, and two of them have ended in a draw.
On May 20, Team Melli defeated Uzbekistan in a friendly fixture as part of its World Cup preparations.
Team Melli beat the White Wolves 1-0 at Azadi Stadium in western Tehran.
Iranian footballer Rouzbeh Cheshmi, who currently plays for Iran's Persian Gulf Premier League club Esteghlal, found the back of the net with a header in the 16th minute.
During the official 2018 FIFA World Cup draw ceremony at Kremlin State Palace in the Russian capital city of Moscow on December 1, Team Melli joined the Portugal national football team, nicknamed A Selecção, Spain’s La Furia Roja and Atlas Lions of Morocco in the preliminary round of the tournament.
The host nation, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Uruguay form Group A in the upcoming quadrennial international sports event.
France is drawn in Group C, and is pitted against Australia, Peru and Denmark.
Argentina, Iceland, Croatia and Nigeria are drawn in Group D. And Group E consists of Brazil, Switzerland, Costa Rica and Serbia.
The 2014 champion Germany, Mexico, Sweden and South Korea are in Group F, and Belgium, Panama, Tunisia and England are in Group G. Group H has Poland, Senegal, Colombia and Japan.
The 2018 FIFA World Cup will take place from June 14 to July 15. Russia will open the event against Saudi Arabia in a Group A match at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium.
A total of 64 matches will be played in 12 venues located in 11 cities.
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