Marc Wilmots begins Iran tenure in promising fashion

PLDC - Belgian Coach Marc Wilmots could not have wished for a better start to his career as boss of the Iran national team as he watched he side cruise to a 5-0 win over Syria at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran.

A hat-trick from Mehdi Taremi, sandwiched between an early strike from Alireza Jahanbakhsh and a late goal from 17-year-old Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, who was making his first-ever start for the selection, secured the win in front of the home crowd.

The last two meetings between the two sides both ended in draws so a win was by no means a foregone conclusion. In fact, 11 of their last 13 encounters have ended in stalemates and Iran had never previously beaten their opponents by more than a two-goal margin. Having said that, Iran’s one and only defeat to the Syrians came way back in May 1973.

This was followed by a much tougher match against South Korea in Seoul where Iran were able to come away with a 1-1 draw. Paulo Bento's reign has only seen them lose once in 16 matches, since taking over last summer's World Cup, and that was in the Asian Cup final against Qatar, so this is an impressive result early in Wilmots' tenure.

Rebuilding his reputation

There were a few raised eyebrows when the Belgian was hired, most notably from his family who were not keen on the move. But the technician views the role as the ideal position to rebuild his reputation after getting sacked by Belgium in 2016 and the Ivory Coast in 2017.

"Marc Wilmots during a training session with the belgian Red Devils" by Delval Loïc [CC BY-SA 3.0]

Wilmots only lost four competitive matches in charge of the Belgian national team but one of those was an embarrassing 3-1 defeat to Wales in the quarter-finals of the 2016 European Championships. That was enough to lose him his job despite boasting a 73.33% win ratio in competitive fixtures.

In his short spell in charge of the Ivory Coast, he guided the team to one victory, one draw and two defeats in four competitive matches as they failed in their bid to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.

A strong team in place

In order to fulfil his quest, the former Belgian politician has drafted in a wealth of coaching talent including former AA Gent assistant Manu Ferrera; former Bayern Munich striker Vahid Hashemian; and French goalkeeping coach, Laurent Spinosi.  The rest of his bench is made up of a mixture of Belgian and Iranian talent.

Iran and Spain match at the FIFA World Cup 2018 by Fars News Agency [CC BY 4.0]

World Cup qualification main objective

Getting Team Melli to the 2022 World Cup finals in Qatar will be Wilmots’ main objective. He follows in the footsteps of Portuguese boss Carlos Queiroz who led the side to two consecutive editions of FIFA’s elite tournament. The Persian team is currently priced 500/1 to win the tournament in the international football betting markets but even the most optimistic fan will just be happy to see their heroes qualify. They surprised many with their performances at the last World Cup and ended up being inches away from taking Portugal's place in the round of 16.

As the No. 1 ranked Asian team in April 2019, Iran has a bye to the second qualifying round of World Cup qualification - along with 33 other countries - the draw for which will take place on July 17 in Doha.