FIFA World Cup 2018: Iran Vs Portugal

With so many ties arising at the group stage of Russia 2018, the battle between Spain, Portugal, and Iran seemed to be the deadliest. Iran’s top class defence and resilience against the star teams have already made the group B the ‘Group of Death’ of FIFA World Cup 2018. As Portugal secured a draw against Iran in the last group-stage match – thanks to Quaresma, the results got clearer, but simultaneous Spain’s draw dropped Portugal down to the runner spot of their group.

Portugal inclined to their right side

Portugal played with their usual 4-4-2 set up having Quaresma starting at the right wing. This signifies a natural preference of the away team to initiate most of their attacks from the right flank. Also, expecting Ronaldo to be multi-pressed by the opponents, Quaresma was the right attacking asset to be deployed at the wing.

With the mid defence line of Iran which occasionally shifted to high press, Portugal made short and mid-range passing and kept their play compressed to avoid getting isolated before their final third region. Beyond that region, the away team attempted to send long direct balls mostly to the right flank and the right half-space where Quaresma played the main role of initiating counters.

The pass map of Portugal provided by @11tegen11 above using OPTA data also shows that most of the direct attacks were executed from the right width. On the other hand, the passing plays at the left and deep planes were indirect and tactically deployed to create spaces as well as to counter Iran’s press. Anyway, attack concluding to Ronaldo had to be indirect as the striker was under the intense press.