{"id":23070,"date":"2026-06-22T00:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/23070\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T00:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T00:50:11","slug":"iran-plays-10-man-belgium-to-0-0-draw-at-world-cup-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/23070\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran plays 10-man Belgium to 0-0 draw at World Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s World Cup<\/a> has been tumultuous off the field, and its play on the pitch still hasn\u2019t produced a victory.<\/p>\n

Yet Team Melli\u2019s dream of advancing to a World Cup knockout round for the first time is still very much alive, thanks to an afternoon of brilliance from goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand in a 0-0 draw with Belgium on Sunday.<\/p>\n

In a World Cup that has already produced several memorable goalkeeping performances<\/a>, Beiranvand joined the group<\/a> with seven saves against the Red Devils. His one-handed stop from a prone position on Maxim De Cuyper\u2019s point-blank shot early in the second half should rank among the highlight saves of the tournament \u2014 and De Cuyper was denied yet again by Beiranvand on a golden opportunity in the 86th minute.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s one of our greatest goalkeepers in the history of Iranian football, and he has achieved many things,\u201d Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said. \u201cHe\u2019s extremely intelligent, very experienced, and he had one of his best days today.\u201d<\/p>\n

But his teammates couldn\u2019t come up with the goal that would have produced a historic victory, not even after Belgium went down to 10 men in the second half. Defender Nathan Ngoy received a straight red card in the 66th minute when he miskicked a ball backward and then fouled Mehdi Taremi to prevent the Iran star from getting a clean breakaway scoring chance.<\/p>\n

Belgium actually generated better scoring opportunities down the stretch while finishing with 23 shots, but both teams left with their second straight draw in group play.<\/p>\n

So while neither team was fully happy with the result at SoFi Stadium, Iran drew many more positives.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe feeling in the dressing room is we could have even get more than what we got today,\u201d Iran midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh said. \u201cBut we are very, very happy with the performance we had as a team. I think we showed a great team spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a tumultuous World Cup trip<\/a> affected by travel restrictions and visa denials from the U.S., Iran just missed a prime opportunity to beat a European team sitting 10th in FIFA\u2019s world rankings. Team Melli was essentially the home team in the Los Angeles area for its second straight match in front of a stadium packed with fans from the diaspora both supporting the Iranians and decrying the government, with boos of the anthem and hundreds of pre-revolutionary Lion and Sun flags displayed.<\/p>\n

Iran\u2019s World Cup cycle has been chaotic ever since the U.S. began a war<\/a> on Feb. 28. The Iranians moved their training base from Arizona to Mexico, and the team has been required to leave Los Angeles right after both matches, infuriating Ghalenoei. With so many preparation obstacles, Ghalenoei leaned on experience against Belgium, sending out the oldest starting 11 at a World Cup match since 1966, according to Opta.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is part of our culture: In a difficult situation, we perform better,\u201d Jahanbakhsh said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Belgium has yet to score in two matches at this World Cup, getting on the scoreboard only through an own goal in its opening draw with Egypt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Standout winger J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku missed this match<\/a> with an illness for Belgium, which has not scored on 69 consecutive shots at the World Cup dating back to its one goal scored during its three mostly dismal games in Qatar four years ago. Kevin De Bruyne led the way with five shots and his usual creative playmaking, yet nothing could get the ball past Beiranvand.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were not efficient enough,\u201d said striker Romelu Lukaku, who generated one shot while starting and playing 73 minutes despite injury concerns. \u201cWe were a bit emotional, but you know, in the end, we created a lot. So let\u2019s stick to the positive side and try to improve for the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgium dominated possession in the first 60 minutes, but Iran still had a strong counterattack that was repeatedly thwarted by goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, who matched Beiranvand\u2019s results, if not his theatricality.<\/p>\n

Team Melli generated the best scoring chances early, including a beautiful set piece that resulted in a goal by Taremi \u2014 who was ruled narrowly offside by video review.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in general, we played quite a good game,\u201d Courtois said. \u201cObviously you can always find things you\u2019d like to do better. We had enough chances to score, and we didn\u2019t score. Their goalkeeper played a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP World Cup: https:\/\/apnews.com\/FIFA-World-Cup<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) \u2014 Iran\u2019s World Cup has been tumultuous off the field, and its play on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[7908,7,4988,13827,3933,3164,7905,3802,2196,3216,5405,5415,5400,3934,1176,3721],"class_list":["post-23070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-amir-ghalenoei","tag-belgium","tag-belgium-national-soccer-team","tag-california","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-iran","tag-iran-national-soccer-team","tag-iran-war","tag-kevin-de-bruyne","tag-manchester-united-fc","tag-maxim-de-cuyper","tag-nathan-ngoy","tag-romelu-lukaku","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-thibaut-courtois"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116791019138671962","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}