Player ratings as late goals down 10-man Dragons

Iran snatched a dramatic victory against ten-man Wales with a pair of stoppage-time goals on Friday morning.

Ahead of Wales’ second group game, Gareth Bale twice reiterated the line: “Football games aren’t so easy,” How right he was.

Under the sweltering lunchtime heat, Wales spent the vast majority of a stodgy slog on the back foot long before goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was dismissed in the 87th minute. Iran struck the woodwork twice and were denied by Welsh flesh many more times before Roozbeh Cheshmi and Ramin Rezaeian sealed Iran’s first World Cup win against European opposition.

Iran were denied an early lead following a flurry of mistakes befitting the scratchy, scrappy nature of the first half.

Connor Roberts fired a blind pass across the pitch into the path of Alireza Gholizedah. Exchanging a zig-zagged one-two with Sardar Azmoun into the penalty box, Gholizedah needlessly strayed offside before finishing off a move VAR swiftly ruled out.

Moments earlier, Kieffer Moore hung out one of his long legs, stabbing a volley into Hossein Hosseini’s chest before a stray boot from his namesake, Majid, caught the towering Welsh striker in the face.

After the mauling suffered by England in the opening game, Iran once again resembled the gritty, obdurate foe forged under Carlos Queiroz’s iron will. During his first spell in charge, Iran kept ten clean sheets in 16 games at major competitions under Queiroz.

The return of the so-called ‘Iranian Messi’ certainly helped Team Melli’s plight. Within ten minutes of the restart, Azmoun burst behind the Welsh backline, clattering a firm effort against Hennessey’s left-hand post. Gholizedah collected the loose ball, bending a left-footed effort off the other upright before Azmoun stooped to tamely nod the rebound into a grateful Hennessey, who was prone on the turf.

Before the tournament, Wales manager Rob Page described the meeting with Iran as a “winnable” match. After drawing with the United States in their opener earlier this week, it turned into a “need to win” contest.

With that urgency in mind, Page shifted his side into a back four for the final half-hour – although that served to expose Wales on the counter. Alongside a flood of red shirts hauling themselves in the way of Iran’s mounting tally of shots, Hennessey tipped away Saeid Ezatolahi’s low effort scuttling towards the bottom corner.

The Welsh number one made the swift fall from hero to villain in the dying embers, losing a foot race with Mehdi Taremi…