Carlos Queiroz's Iran look capable of blunting England attackers in opener

England were pretty happy when the draw for the World Cup group stage was made in April but so too were Iran, who take on the Three Lions in their Group B opener on Monday.

This is Iran's sixth appearance at the World Cup finals and they have never got out of their group, although they almost came through a really tough section in 2018.

They took four points from matches against Spain, Portugal and Morocco and their squad looks even better four years on so England should expect a difficult opening fixture.

Iran have brought back their favourite coach Carlos Queiroz for this tournament. He won't care about playing attractive football or how his tactics are perceived – he just wants his team to make it as hard as possible for England to play their football.

In September, just two weeks into his second spell as Iran coach, they beat a strong Uruguay team 1-0 in a friendly, pressing a bit higher up the pitch than they did at the 2018 finals, and they can certainly cause problems for their group rivals.

I've spoken to Queiroz a few times and he will be desperate to win this game against England, or even take a point given that there are winnable fixtures against Wales and the USA to follow.

I think Iran have probably been underestimated and the 100-30 that they qualify from the group could be a price worth taking.

Like any Queiroz-coached team, they will be well drilled, frustrating to play against, and they'll do anything to upset England's gameplan. If England score early it'll be a different story but if Iran manage to take the lead then expect time-wasting like you wouldn't believe!

Even a draw on Monday would be one of the best results in Iran's footballing history and they have better attacking options than they've had at past World Cups.

Mehdi Taremi scores lots of goals for Porto, in the Champions League as well as the Primeira Liga, and Bayer Leverkusen's Sardar Azmoun is one of the best strikers in Asia although he has been struggling with a calf injury.

Conditions in Qatar will be familiar for Iran as they play in the region all the time and I don't expect the political protests at home to affect the squad too much.

The situation will be on the players' minds, of course, and midfielder Alireza Jahanbakhsh was clearly fed up about the English media's questions on the subject this week. However, Queiroz and his players understand the significance of Monday's match so they should be fully focused on their performance on the pitch.

Meticulous preparation boosts Qatar's hopes of an upset

I've been to Asian Cups in Qatar, as well as tournaments in other Gulf nations, so I'm expecting the World Cup to be a well-organised event with decent crowds at most of the matches.

Given Qatar's tiny population, there won't be the same sense of palpable excitement in the streets that we saw in, say, South Korea in 2002 or Germany in 2006. But there is a genuine footballing culture in the state, with people getting together to watch games in cafes and restaurants.

It will be interesting to see whether Qatar's players can cope with the pressure of Sunday's Group A game against Ecuador. They have never featured at a World Cup finals so to be playing in the opening match of the tournament, at home, is a huge moment and it's impossible to say how they'll handle all the razzmatazz.

What we can be confident about is the fact that their preparation for the tournament has been second to none. The national-team players were withdrawn from the domestic Qatari Stars League – which is a fairly strong league, at least in Asian terms – in June and they have been training as a group since then.

Qatar are not one of the giants of Asian football but they won the 2019 Asian Cup in dominant fashion, scoring 19 goals, conceding just once, and beating Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Japan along the way.

Manager Felix Sanchez has stayed loyal to the players who won that tournament so the team hasn't changed much in the last three years.

There are question marks over whether some of Qatar's key players may have passed their peak but they did well at last year's Concacaf Gold Cup, reaching the semi-finals, and they couldn't have done more in terms of preparation for the World Cup.

Qatar are better going forward than they are in defence so it's a slight concern that they've been trying to play on the counter-attack in recent friendlies, with underwhelming results.

You could understand them adopting those tactics when they play the Netherlands, who are hot favourites to win the group, but they should be more aggressive in the matches against Ecuador and Senegal.

Almoez Ali is the out-and-out striker for the hosts and he has a great understanding with Akram Afif, their best creative player.

Afif plays in a roaming role, claiming ten assists at the 2019 Asian Cup, so he should create chances in the group games. If Ali can take one or two of those opportunities then Qatar could cause the odd surprise.

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