Portugal played Iran in their final match of Group B of the World Cup.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal entered the field against Iran to secure a spot in the round-of-16 of the World Cup, and they did their job, even though Portugal finished second. Ricardo Quaresma’s terrific strike in the first half gave Portugal the lead, before Iran equalised in injury time for a 1-1 draw.
With this result, Portugal finished second of the Group B, and will now face Uruguay in the knock-out round.
Iran were strong defensively in the first half, keeping the spaces tight and not giving enough room to Portuguese attackers, Ronaldo in particular. However, it was the individual brilliance of Ricardo Quaresma, at the brink of half time, which gave Portugal a 1-0 lead in the match.
Ronaldo won a penalty early in the second half after it was referred to VAR. However, he failed to convert it as Beiranvand made a perfect dive towards his left to deny the Portuguese forward his fifth goal of the tournament. Portugal continued to lead attacks on the Iranian defence, but Quaresma’s goal remained to be the only goal for Portugal.
In injury time, Iran equalised as VAR gave them a penalty, but it wasn’t enough for the Asian nation to go through to the next round.
In the other Group B match, Spain and Morocco played a 2-2 draw, with Spain being the second team from the group to qualify for the next round. Spain will now play the Group A runners-up and host nation, Russia.
Here are some tweets from the match –
