Their tournament
how their World Cup unfoldedIran's group-stage finale against Egypt ended 1-1, a Rezaeian equaliser on 14 minutes cancelling out Saber's early opener — a pattern that defined their entire tournament: always in the contest, never quite through it. Three draws, no wins, and three points were enough to sneak through as one of the best third-placed sides, but the knockout round delivered the reckoning that the group stage had deferred. Iran exit the 2026 World Cup without a victory to their name, their campaign a study in stubborn resilience that ultimately fell short of the cutting edge a deep run demands.
Results
Knocked out — the road ended in the group stage this time.
Group G standings
how the group finishedGroup G
Final| # | Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | Outcome | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 🇧🇪Belgium | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | +4 | 5 | Group winner | |
| 2 | 🇪🇬Egypt | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | +2 | 5 | Runner-up | |
| 3 | 🇮🇷Iran | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +0 | 3 | Out | |
| 4 | 🇳🇿New Zealand | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | -6 | 1 | Out |
Squad
starting XI from Iran at Egypt in boldGoalkeepers
- 1Alireza Beiranvand33
- 12Payam Niazmand31
- 22Hossein Hosseini34
Defenders
- 4Shoja Khalilzadeh37
- 5Milad Mohammadi32
- 13Hossein Kanani32
- 19Ali Nemati30
- 23Ramin Rezaeian36
- 2Saleh Hardani27
- 3Ehsan Hajsafi36
- 17Arya Yousefi24
- 25Danial Iri22
Midfielders
- 6Saeid Ezatolahi29
- 8Mohammad Mohebbi27
- 14Saman Ghoddos32
- 21Mohammad Ghorbani24
- 15Roozbeh Cheshmi33
- 16Mehdi Torabi31
- 26Amirmohammad Razzaghinia20
Forwards
- 9Mehdi Taremi34
- 7Alireza Jahanbakhsh33
- 10Mehdi Ghayedi27
- 11Ali Alipour30
- 18Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh25
- 20Shahriyar Moghanloo31
- 24Dennis Dargahi29