FIFA World Cup 2018: Morocco Vs Iran

Morocco and Iran went into their World Cup opener knowing that victory was a necessity if they were to have any real hope of progressing to the knockout stages. Drawn in Group B with Spain and Portugal, whoever lost this match would face an uphill task in their next two fixtures.

Both teams entered the tournament with belief having had outstanding qualifying campaigns. However, confidence and form only get a football team so far. Fortunately, these two sides also have clear tactical approaches and some exceptional individual players. Consequently, their clash was one of genuine quality, with some positive attacking, pressing and counter-attacking play.

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Morocco went with their favoured 4-2-3-1 system, with goalkeeper Munir protected by a centre-back duo of Mehdi Benatia and Romain Saiss. The selection of Saiss at the heart of defence may have raised some eyebrows in England – he has, after all, spent most of his time in midfield at Wolverhampton Wanderers. However, his appearance in a deeper role here was done to enable better quality build-up for Morocco.

Natural winger Nordin Amrabat started at right-back, while Real Madrid’s Achraf Hakimi played on the left of the back four. The former’s selection in a full-back role again showed the attacking intent of a Moroccan outfit coached by Herve Renard.

The midfield five was fairly fluid. Karim El Ahmadi generally stayed deep, though his central midfield partner, Mbark Boussoufa, was given licence to push forward both defensively and offensively. Further on, the attacking midfield trio of Hakim Ziyech, Younes Belhanda and Amine Harit played with a great deal of positional freedom behind lone striker Ayoub El Kaabi.

Carlos Queiroz lined his Iran side up in a more defensive 4-5-1 system. Sardar Azmoun acted alone up front, though support did come from Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Karim Ansarifard in the wide areas. In central midfield, Masoud Shojaei and Vahid Amiri took on more active pressing outer roles, while Omid Ebrahimi covered centrally.

Behind them, goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand was shielded by a solid back four made up of right-back Ramin Rezaeian, centre-backs Morteza Pouraliganji and Rouzbeh Cheshmi, and left-back Ehsan Hajsafi.

MOROCCO’S ATTACKING MOVEMENTS

Morocco’s attacking structure was fluid, with positional rotations between the central midfielders and attacking midfielders occurring frequently throughout the match. A common move would see Boussoufa move up the field during build-up, attempting to drag an Iranian midfield marker with him and create space that Ziyech, Belhanda or Harit could drop deep in to receive possession.

However, while the intentions behind Boussoufa’s movement were positive, as he looked to manipulate the man-orientations in Iran’s central midfielders, this didn’t always work. Often, it would simply result in Boussoufa making himself inaccessible behind the Iran midfield line.

Morocco’s build-up generally involved the two centre-backs, plus one or two midfielders – El Ahmadi being one of them. They found it difficult to play through a packed centre, however, so were often left circulating the ball amongst themselves before relying on a dangerous dribble through pressure or a long ball to progress the attack.

At times, Iran capitalised on sloppy build-up to launch counter-attacking raids that nearly led to goals, though generally, Morocco were able to establish control of possession thanks in part to the position and body shape of their midfield receiver. Below is an example of this. Belhanda moves into space diagonally in front of Benatia, positioning himself so his back is not to goal. From this stance, he can both receive the ball comfortably and see oncoming pressure.

One of the most noticeable aspects of Morocco’s attacking play was the advancement of their full-backs down their respective flanks early on in build-up. Amrabat took up a particularly high position, acting as more of a right-winger than a right-back for much of the match. See his WhoScored heat map below for evidence. These high positions were taken up to offer an option for long diagonal balls from the centre-backs or quick switches of play either to get around Iran’s compact defensive block, or simply to stretch their block horizontally and create space within their back line.