DHAKA, June 26, 2018 (BSS)- Portugal moved to the last 16 stage not before they had to sweat hard to share points with unlucky Iran as the crucial Group B match ended 1-1 in the FIFA World Cup held in the early hours on Tuesday at Kazan Arena in Kazan, Russia.
Ricardo Quaresma scored a sublime goal in the 45th minute and Cristiano Ronaldo had a penalty saved in the second half as Portugal appeared to be cruising through as group winners.
But Ronaldo was perhaps fortunate to avoid a red card following an 80th minute VAR review and Iran equalised through an injury-time penalty Karim Ansarifard – awarded with the use of VAR for a handball by Cedric Soares – before Mehdi Taremi missed a gilt-edged chance late on to knock Portugal out.
The result, combined with Spain’s late equalise in their 2-2 draw with Morocco – means Portugal will play Uruguay and Spain will play Russia in the next round on Saturday evening, while Iran are eliminated.
Portugal has secured five points from three matches while Iran collected four points playing the same number of matches.
Earlier, Portugal played out to a 3-3 goal draw with Spain in their group opening match and beat Morocco by 1-0 goal in their second match.
On the other hand, Iran beat Morocco by 1-0 goal in their group opening match but lost to Spain by 0-1 goal in their second group match.