\n 2026-06-21T07:10:15+00:00<\/p>\n
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Shafaq News- Philadelphia<\/p>\n
Iraq\u2019s national football team arrived in Philadelphia on
\nSunday ahead of their second World Cup Group I match against France, welcomed
\nby Iraqi fans before a fixture that could shape the team\u2019s qualification hopes.<\/p>\n
A large crowd from the Iraqi community received the squad on
\narrival, chanting in support of the \u201cLions of Mesopotamia\u201d before their meeting
\nwith one of the tournament favorites.<\/p>\n
Graham Arnold\u2019s side now move into the final phase of
\npreparation for France at Lincoln Financial Field, where Iraq need a positive
\nresult after opening their campaign with a 4-1 defeat to Norway, which left
\nIraq with little room for error, despite a strong first-half spell in which
\nAymen Hussein equalized before defensive mistakes allowed Erling Haaland and
\nhis teammates to pull away.<\/p>\n
France, meanwhile, enter the match in a stronger position
\nafter beating Senegal 3-1 in their opener, giving Didier Deschamps\u2019 side three
\npoints and early control of their qualification path.<\/p>\n
The French camp has warned against treating Iraq as a
\nroutine opponent. Defender William Saliba said France expect an intense match
\nagainst a team fighting to stay alive, while Lucas Digne pointed to Iraq\u2019s
\ndirect style and two-forward setup.<\/p>\n
Deschamps is also expected to make only limited adjustments,
\nwith France aiming to keep momentum while avoiding complacency before their
\nsecond group match.<\/p>\n
A defeat would leave Iraq close to an early exit before
\nfacing Senegal, while a result against France would reopen their path in Group
\nI.<\/p>\n
The match is scheduled for Tuesday at 00:00 Baghdad time at
\nLincoln Financial Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2026-06-21T07:10:15+00:00 font Enable Reading Mode A- A A+ Shafaq News- Philadelphia Iraq\u2019s national football team arrived in Philadelphia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3745,5,432,26937,409],"class_list":["post-38867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-breaking","tag-france","tag-iraq","tag-iraqi-fans-welcome-team-before-france-showdown","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}