Iran vs New Zealand - World Cup LIVE: National anthem booed as politically-charged opener kicks off amid protests and US peace deal
It’s been a brutally long road to the World Cup for Iran, with too much time in the early stages spent on a bus journey, from which the players witnessed the damage wreaked by the war their country finds itself in.
With the nation’s domestic football league suspended since February because of the US and Israeli air strikes, and the squad’s substantial band of home-based players way short of fitness, a 2,000-mile journey to a training camp at Antalya, on the southern tip of Turkey, ensued last month. It began on Iran’s unpredictable road system because airspace was deemed unsafe. The squad have not returned home since.
The time in Turkey brought work trying to get some fitness into players who hadn’t played competitive football for seven weeks, with the team’s taciturn manager Amir Ghalenoei reflecting that only 25 per cent of the physical ‘shortfall’ could be made up in that time. We will know more when they play New Zealand tonight.
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