TEHRAN – The draw for the 2022 FIFA World Cup has been made in Doha, and Iran have joined England and the U.S. in an interesting group, not just for footballing reasons.
In a ceremony with Iran’s all-time leading scorer Ali Daei being among the draw assistants, Team-Melli were pitted as the 3rd seed in Group B, alongside England, the United States and the final European playoff winner, which will be filled by either Ukraine, Scotland or Wales later in June.
The Iranian Cheetahs will begin their quest against England on the opening day of the World Cup on November 21st. This will be Iran’s 6th appearance at football’s biggest stage.
The 2022 World Cup will take place in Doha, Qatar from Nov. 21 to Dec. 18.
Having fought to win the respect of Iran’s football public, Dragan Skocic now has a World Cup showdown with England and the United States to cement his international standing.
England manager Gareth Southgate admitted he knew little about the Iranian team his side will face on the opening day of the World Cup after they were put together in Group B at Friday’s draw in Doha.
England have been too busy with their own matches, he said.
“We know that Iran finished ahead of South Korea and if they have done that we know they have some pretty good players.”
“We will try to advance. I always said we have a very good team and maybe we can advance for the first time,” Skocic, a former Croatian international player, told Iranian state news agency IRNA on Saturday.
“I think our draw could have been worse, for example, being in the Spain-Germany group. But our work will still be difficult and one cannot expect a simple group in the World Cup,” he added.
“England is the toughest team in my opinion,” adding “but our team is good enough to be able to compete with others.”
“Football is interesting for people because it is unpredictable,” he said.
“We know that England are better than other teams at the moment but they have to show that in the game.”
He will be relying on players who went through previous World Cup campaigns, and the likes of Mehdi Taremi at Porto in Portugal, Sardar Azmoun at Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen and Alireza Jahanbakhsh at Feyenoord in the Netherlands who have played European football.
The team trains in “good conditions” and he says he has made valuable friends.
“Iran is something different than people think. Everyone talks about the politics but I have never seen the hospitality that I have experienced in Iran.”
Those Qatar 2022 groups in full:
Group A: Qatar, Ecuador, Netherlands, Senegal
Group B: England, Iran, the U.S., Scotland/Wales/Ukraine
Group C: Argentina, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland
Group D: France, UAE/Australia/Peru, Denmark, Tunisia
Group E: Spain, Costa Rica/New Zealand, Germany, Japan
Group F: Belgium, Canada, Morocco, Croatia
Group G: Brazil, Serbia, Switzerland, Cameroon
Group H: Portugal, Ghana, Uruguay, South Korea