World Cup 2018 > Group B (II)

Your first and best world cup update blog will be looking at more team-by-team analysis of countries in this year's world cup. In this edition, we bring you the other teams in group B; Morocco and Iran.

To view other team profiles, check the Archives section at the footer of this post.

Group B

Teams

• Portugal
• Spain
• Morocco
• Iran
  
  

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  Facts File

Morocco

• The North African side have made 5 appearances at the world cup finals, of which the best performance was in Mexico 1986 where they got knocked out by West Germany in the Round of 16. They were the first African team to ever make it past the group stages of the tournament. The last time they played in a world cup final was in France 1998 where a late winner saw Norway edge them out of qualification for the second round.
  
  

Squad

nickname: Igrzamn n Atlasi (The Atlas Lions)

players:

• Yassine Bounou (1) - GK
• Munir Mohamedi (12) - GK
• Ahmed Reda Tagnaouti (22) - GK
• Achraf Hakimi (2) - DF
• Hamza Mendyl (3) - DF
• Manuel da Costa (4) - DF
• Medhi Benatia (5) - DF
• Romain Saiss (6) - MF
• Hakim Ziyech (7) - MF
• Karim El Ahmadi (8) - MF
• Younes Belhanda (10) - MF
• Faycal Fajr (11) - MF
• Mbark Bousoufa (14) - MF
• Youssef Aït Bennasser (15) - MF
• Nordin Amrabat (16) - MF
• Sofyan Amrabat (21) - MF
• Mehdi Carcela-González (23) - MF
• Nabil Dirar (17) - MF
• Amine Harit (18) - MF
• Ayoub El Kaabi (9) - FW
• Khalid Boutaib (13) - FW
• Aziz Bouhaddouz (20) - FW
• Youssef En-Nesyri (19) - FW

coach: Herve Renard

International Friendlies 2018:

• Serbia 1 - Morocco 2 > 23/03/18
• Morocco 2 - Uzbekistan 0 > 27/03/18
• Morocco 0 - Ukraine 0 > 31/05/18
• Morocco 2 - Slovakia 1 > 04/06/18
• Estonia 1 - Morocco 3 > 09/06/18

win: 4 (80%); draw: 1 (20%); loss: 0 (0%)

Iran

• The middle-eastern team has made 4 appearances in the world cup finals. Their best performance was in France 1998 where they secured a 2 - 1 victory over the USA. They've never made it past the group stage of the tournament. Their first appearance was in Argentina 1978 and their last time out was in Germany 2006.
• Reza Ghoochannejhad has scored 17 goals in 43 appearances for his country. The 31-year old frontman is Iran's joint 8th all-time top scorer, along with Karim Ansarifard.
  
  

Squad

nickname: Team Melli

players:

• Alireza Beiranvand (1) - GK
• Mohammad Rashid Mazaheri (12) - GK
• Amir Abedzadeh (22) - GK
• Rouzbeh Cheshmi (4) - DF
• Milad Mohammadi (5) - DF
• Mohammad Reza Khanzadeh (13) - DF
• Pejman Montazeri (15) - DF
• Majid Hosseini (19) - DF
• Ramin Rezaeian (23) - DF
• Ehsan Hajsafi (3) - MF
• Saeid Ezatolahi (6) - MF
• Morteza Pouraliganji (8) - MF
• Vahid Amiri (11) - MF
• Mehdi Torabi (2) - MF
• Masoud Shojaei (7) - MF
• Omid Ebrahimi (9) - MF
• Karim Ansarifard (10) - FW
• Saman Ghoddos (14) - FW
• Reza Ghoochannejhad (16) - FW
• Mehdi Taremi (17) - FW
• Alireza Jahanbakhsh (18) - FW
• Sardar Azmoun (20) - FW
• Ashkan Dejagah (21) - FW

coach: Carlos Queiroz

International Friendlies 2018:

• Iran 4 - Saudi Arabia 1 > 28/02/18
• Iran 4 - Sierra Leone 0 > 17/03/18
• Tunisia 1 - Iran 0 > 23/03/18
• Iran 2 - Algeria 1 > 27/03/18
• Iran 1 - Uzbekistan 0 > 18/05/18
• Iran 1 - Turkey 2 > 28/05/18
• Iran 1 - Lithuania 0 > 08/06/18

win: 5 (71%); draw: 0 (0%); loss: 2 (29%)

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Sources and References

World Soccer
Fifa official website
Wikipedia
Goal
Livescores


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World Cup 2018 > Group A
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