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Belgium frustrated by structured Iran, as Group G remains tight in 0-0 draw

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – G stands for “grind” as Group G saw its third draw in three games at this World Cup on Sunday at SoFi Stadium.

Despite its dominance on the ball, Belgium was unable to find much danger in the final third, and after a free-kick goal was deemed offside on video review in the first half, Iran put up a gritty and structured defensive performance in a 0-0 draw.

“We had the opportunity to win, but I think this is a great achievement,” Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said. “Future generations will talk about this. What a great achievement.”

The favored Belgians have now scored just one goal–an Egyptian own goal in last week’s opener–in two group stage games, while Iran happily took its second point of the tournament. Now, either New Zealand and Egypt have a chance to take control of the group tonight in Vancouver.

“When you’re not efficient, you can’t score,” Belgium coach Rudi Garcia said, “and if you don’t score, you can’t win a match.”

If either New Zealand or Egypt win tonight, Belgium–the 10th-ranked team in the world–will be on the third-place bubble entering the final round of group play.

Iran has an edge on total goals scored (two) and currently sits in second place, which puts Iran in line to advance out of the World Cup group stage for the first time in its history.

“The group is not weak. When there are so few matches, you can’t miss an opportunity, and we did,” Garcia said. “We have to keep our head down.”

With a multitude of scenarios for group placings and knockout round destinations still in the air, there will be simultaneous Pacific Northwest kickoffs to finish off the group stage on Friday.

Belgium (0-1-0, 2 points) will play New Zealand (0-1-0, 1 point) in Vancouver, and Iran (0-2-0, 2 point) will face Egypt (0-1-0, 1 point) in Seattle with a multitude of scenarios for group placings and knockout round destinations.

The Group G winner will face a third-place team from one of Groups A/E/H/I/J with the possibility of playing the United States in the Round of 16, should the USMNT win its Round of 32 match.

The second-place team from Group G will play the second-place team from Group D–either Australia or Paraguay, depending on their result Thursday in Santa Clara–with the winner likely facing Argentina in the Round of 16.

The top eight third-place teams of the 12 groups move on, and with both Belgium and Iran sitting on two points, the likelihood of advancing takes a hit. There are myriad permutations still to play out for the third-place scenarios, and a goal differential of zero helps.

However you look at it, the only way for any of Group G to secure a spot forward is to win next week.

“We need to beat New Zealand to move to the round of 32,” Garcia said. “I’m trusting in our players that they will be confident and win.”

Nearly every single statistic favored Belgium except for the scoreline on Sunday in what continues to be a frustrating World Cup for the Red Devils.

Belgium was without Manchester City striker Jeremy Doku, who was held out due to illness, but the Belgians were still dominant on the ball with around 70% possession for most of the match.

Belgian defender Nathan Ngoy took a straight red card in the 66th minute–Ngoy mishandled the ball and pulled down the Iranian forward as the last defender–and despite playing down a man for 24 minutes, the Belgians still held a 23-7 advantage in shot attempts, 7-3 mark in shots on target and 19-4 lead in attempts inside the box.

“In the first half, we got ahead of ourselves. We were wasteful,” Garcia said. “We lacked efficiency. We talked about verticality. We didn’t have much room. We could have done much better spacing ourselves out on the crosses.”“We expected to dominate, and we did. We played as we wanted to play.”

Ultimately, Belgium still couldn’t break through thanks in part due to the stellar goalkeeping from Iran’s Alireza Beiranvand, who put up seven saves in a Man of the Match performance.

“One of our greatest goalkeepers in the history of Iranian football,” Ghalenoei said. “He’s extremely intelligent, very experienced. He had one of his best days today. He had the right concentration and given us one very valuable point.”

Iran played with an excellent defensive structure and looked to push back on the counterattack. The one area Belgium did not earn the edge in was forced turnovers, where Iran held a 31-23 advantage.

Team Melli was also the only side to find the back of the net on Sunday, as Medhi Taremi scored off a crafty free kick in the 25th minute. However, it was just a step too crafty, as the video assistant referee determined Taremi was offside on the free kick.

“We were very unlucky it was slightly offside,” Ghalenoei said. “We could have got three points. They could have got three points. We both had equal opportunities."

Now, both Belgium and Iran have equal opportunity to put themselves through to the knockout rounds for next week. For Iran, it’s a chance they relish, and for Belgium, it shouldn’t have come down to this.

“We need to focus on the next match and stay calm,” Garcia said.

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