LOS ANGELES, June 19 : Belgium will look to kick-start their World Cup campaign against Iran in a pivotal Group G clash at Los Angeles Stadium on Sunday, with all four teams deadlocked on one point apiece. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Red Devils were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by Egypt in their opener after a sluggish performance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belgium fell behind in the first half before the country’s all-time leading scorer Romelu Lukaku came off the bench to inject urgency into the attack and help force an equaliser through an Egyptian own goal after the break.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Belgium are seeking to banish the memory of their 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where they were eliminated in the group stage despite arriving as one of the tournament favourites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They are expected to take a more aggressive approach against Iran, led by veteran midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, exciting winger Jeremy Doku and towering goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran, meanwhile, will need to tighten up defensively after being held to a 2-2 draw by New Zealand, when Elijah Just and Chris Wood repeatedly troubled the Iranian back line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran will look to captain Mehdi Taremi, along with Ramin Rezaeian and Mohammad Mohebi, who scored against New Zealand, to provide the attacking threat against Belgium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If Belgium or Iran earn at least four points from their next two games they will be guaranteed a place in the Round of 32 as either group winners or runners-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran are also dealing with unusual logistical challenges at the tournament, having moved their base camp from Arizona to tournament co-hosts Mexico before the start of the finals amid the U.S.-Iran war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That has forced the squad to travel internationally for each of their three group-stage matches in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They would face the same challenge for the rest of the tournament should they advance and play matches in the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iran lodged a complaint with world soccer’s governing body FIFA on Friday over travel restrictions facing the team in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. authorities require the squad to enter the country within 24 hours of a match and leave the same day, prompting Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei to describe Iran as the “most oppressed” team at the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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LOS ANGELES, June 19 : Belgium will look to kick-start their World Cup campaign against Iran in a pivotal Group G clash at Los Angeles Stadium on Sunday, with all four teams deadlocked on one point apiece. The Red Devils were held to a disappointing 1-1 draw by Egypt in their opener after a sluggish performance. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417962,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417961\/revisions\/417962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}