Iran will be desperate to find some scoring form against
Angola on Friday, as their FIFA World Cup preparations continue.
Carlos Queiroz's men have played out two scoreless draws
- against Belarus and Montenegro - in their only international outings since
early March.
Queiroz utilised all six of his substitutes against
Montenegro on Monday at the TSV Stadion in Hartberg, Austria, including
debutant forward Sardar Azmoun.
Azmoun, 19, is reportedly on the radar of powerhouse
clubs around England and Europe, and the Rubin Kazan man played 30 minutes in
the Iran shirt.
The only players to get 90 minutes were goalkeeper Rahman
Ahmadi, defender Pejman Montazeri, captain Javad Nekounam and midfielders
Masoud Shojaei and Andranik Teymourian.
Queiroz's side have had a disruptive preparation, with
their training camp in South Africa in April not featuring any players from
Iran clubs Esteghlal and Sepahan due to an ongoing stoush with the country's
football association.
Queiroz was quoted as saying Iran had no chance of
progressing past the group stages, due to their lack of preparation.
Following that, Iran's friendly with Mozambique - the
country of Queiroz's birth - was cancelled, before 180 minutes of scoreless
action in their two friendlies in Austria.
Queiroz only has two more opportunities - competitively -
to get Iran in a scoring mood, before their World Cup opener against Nigeria on
June 16.
Meanwhile, Angola - who are not World Cup bound - will
head into their clash with Iran coming off a confidence-boosting 2-0 victory
over Morocco on Wednesday.
As it stands, Angola have gone five matches unbeaten -
with their most recent defeat coming in the form of a 1-0 loss at home to
Mozambique last July.
Iran and Angola have met on two occasions, with a World
Cup clash among them.
The two nations drew 1-1 in Germany in 2006, before Iran
claimed a 1-0 win over them in a friendly in January 2011 - with skipper
Nekounam scoring a 90th-minute winner.
Culled from Soccerway
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