Teymourian: Iran hard to beat

Experienced Iran midfielder Andranik Teymourian has vowed his nation will be tough to beat at the FIFA World Cup, despite quality opposition.

The Gulf nation was drawn in Group F alongside Argentina, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Nigeria, with their first match at the finals against the African nation on June 16.

Teymourian, who played every minute for Iran at their most recent finals appearance in Germany in 2006, said Iran will give their three group opponents problems.

“No game is going to be easy for us,” Teymourian said from Iran’s training camp in Austria.

“But playing against Iran is not going to be easy for any of our opponents.”

Iran’s friendly results have been less than inspiring, playing out two scoreless draws against Belarus and Montenegro.

But ahead of their friendly with Angola on Friday, Teymourian said their results in AFC World Cup qualifying – in which they finished first in Group A of the final phase – were promising.

“This shows the enormous fighting spirit shown by the players, proven in the qualifiers, and the fact that we could qualify is a tremendous achievement for our team and I personally hope that we can be one of the favourites also,” Teymourian said.

Winger Alireza Jahanbakhsh agreed that Iran’s qualifying results were a solid precedent for the side to build on.

“That’s like a window for all the world, all the countries can see it, so we’re going to be our best and get a result in the World Cup,” Jahanbakhsh said.