Iran - Do They Even Have A Chance?

Vitalfootball - To be truthful, nobody expects them to win it.

But could they be a surprise package like South Korea were in the 2002 World Cup, when they famously made it to the Semi-Finals losing 1-0 to Germany??

Iran made it to the World Cup through the Asian qualifying stages, Iran entered at the second stage of the group competition in Asia. They impressively turned over Laos 7-0 TWICE in this stage.

In the next stage they only lost one match. That was against Japan, who also line up in this years World Cup. They did however beat Japan in the return match.

This meant that Iran would go through to the World Cup after qualifying in second place of the group behind Japan.

Then it came to the World Cup draw. People wanted to play Iran, but the question had to be asked - Would England be drawn against Iran or would it cause a political outrage?

In the end they were kept apart, and Iran were placed in a group alongside Mexico, Portugal and Angola.

Iran have shown that they can beat World Cup opposition. They recently played Costa Rica in a friendly and won 3-2. Iran raced to 3-0 ahead, before Costa Rica pulled 2 goals back.

In addition, they also have friendlies lined up against Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and a local German team when they arrive in their German training camp.

Iran must surely be looking at getting points from the games against Angola and Mexico, and then taking each game as it comes should they get through to the second round?

Iran have shown they have the quality, but the questions begs to be asked do they have the quality to produce it on the biggest stage of them all – the World Cup???

We'll have to wait and see...