Iran 1-1 Portugal: Last gasp VAR penalty award snatches top spot from Portuguese after Ricardo Quaresma stunner

1/28
James Benge25 June 2018

An injury-time penalty from Karim Ansarifard stole top spot in Group B from Portugal as Iran earned a famous 1-1 draw that was not quite enough to fire them into the knockout stage.

Ricardo Quaresma's brilliant goal with the outside of his boot was seemingly enough for Portugal on a night where Cristiano Ronaldo missed a penalty and nearly saw red.

However a controversial VAR intervention that saw Cedric Soares penalised for a handball in the area cost Portugal dearly, and they will now come up against Uruguay in the round of 16.

Iran teetered early on, Saeid Ezatolahi kicking away cross as Alireza Beiranvand hared out to claim it. Joao Mario ought to have done better than skew his shot over the net.

Beiranvand was evidently uncomfortable under the high ball, spilling a cross on 13 minutes that luckily for him slipped away to safety. It made it all the more bizarre that, for the remainder of the half, Portugal eschewed crosses.

Their opponents grew in confidence, Ramin Rezaeian curling a long-range free-kick just over the bar, but with both sides growing in surety at the back this game seemed as decent a prospect as any to end this tournament’s 34 game streak without a goalless draw.

But those who had sat through 45 minutes lacking in inspiration were rewarded in magnificent style as Quaresma, a magician when it comes to the trivela, took Adrien Silva’s backheel and let fly from the edge of the area, the ball swirling gorgeously into the top left corner after he hit it squarely with his outside of his boot.

Quaresma opens the scoring
REUTERS

VAR reared its head early in the second half, when Portugal were awarded a penalty after Cristiano Ronaldo had collided with Ehsan Haji Safi. Enrique Caceres had opted not to give the spot-kick and it seemed a surprising call for the video assistants to opt to overturn.

Iran might have felt vindicated when Ronaldo’s poorly-placed spot-kick was blocked by Beiranvand but it was not the end of the controversy, with Iran head coach Carlos Quieroz handed a final warning for his response to the penalty.

To add to his woes, Ronaldo very nearly saw red when Caceres was asked to review a possible punch on Morteza Pouraliganji but received only a yellow.

Ronaldo's penalty is saved
EPA

Sensing a chance at the victory they needed to qualify – and with Spain slipping behind in Kaliningrad there was a scenario where a draw might have been enough – Iran took the game to Portugal. Saman Ghoddos slashed just wide from the edge of the box but Team Melli​'s hopes were raised when they were handed a late penalty for a handball by Cedric.

Ansarifard eased the ball into the top right corner and his side had three minutes to knock out the European champions. A deflected Ghoddos shot broke to Mehdi Taremi, who slammed a shot into the side-netting as Iran's campaign ended in the nearest of misses.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in