Morocco vs Iran Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

It’s been 20 years since Morocco entered the World Cup Finals, but now that they’re back in the fray they’ll be giving it their all to try and qualify from a very tough group that contains both Spain and Portugal. The difficulty of those two matches makes this a must win fixture for both Morocco and Iran if they want any chance of progressing to the knockout stages.

Morocco will be the favourites to defy the odds though. They come into this World Cup with a deceptively talented squad which contains an array of talented midfielders, a Juventus centre back, and a young forward in exceptional form. Medhi Benatia captains the side from the centre of defence, whilst Ajax’s Hakim Ziyech is a key figure in midfield. Up front is RS Berkane’s 24 year old striker Ayoub El Kaabi, who has netted an impressive 11 goals in just ten international caps.

It’s El Kaabi who we expect to be the difference here. He’s scored in five of his last six appearances for Morocco and is relishing his new role as the national team’s number nine, so we’re backing him to get on the scoresheet on Friday.

Overall, Morocco are in excellent form. They haven’t lost a match in over a year, and have won 14 of their 18 games since then. Obviously many of these have been against vastly inferior sides, but they do include the likes of South Korea, Egypt, Nigeria, Serbia, Ukraine, and Slovakia.

Iran, meanwhile, lost 2-1 to Turkey at the back end of May, and followed that up last week with a rather stale 1-0 win against Lithuania. Simply put, they have neither the talent or the form that Morocco possess at the moment, and that makes them big underdogs in our eyes.

Their recent defeats to Turkey and Tunisia don’t bode well for them, and it was only nine months ago that they failed to beat Syria on home soil. We think the odds for a Morocco Win here are excellent value, so that’s what we’re backing along with a 2-0 correct score predictions.

Morocco Predicted Lineup: Bounou, Hakimi, Benatia, Saiss, Mendyl, Boussoufa, El Ahmadi, Amrabat, Belhanda, Ziyech, El Kaabi

Iran Predicted Lineup: Beiranvard, Rezaeian, Cheshmi, Pouraliganji, Mohammadi, Shojaei, Hajsafi, Ebrahimi, Taremi, Jahanbakhsh, Azmoun