page_title: Iran national football team
section_title: Finals
hierarchical_section_title: Iran national football team / History / 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil / Finals
caption_attribution_description: English: Iran and Argentina national football teams match, 2014 FIFA World Cup Group F
context_page_description: The Iran national football team, also known as Team Melli, represents Iran in international football and is controlled by the Iran Football Federation. From December 2014 until May 2018, the men's national football team of Iran remained the highest-ranked team in Asia, representing the longest continuous period of time a team has been top of the continent in the rankings.
  Iran is one of the most successful men's national teams in Asia with three Asian Cup championships. Iran's best performance at the Olympics was reaching the quarterfinals in the 1976 Montreal Games. Iran has qualified for the World Cup five times but has never advanced past the group stage. They have, however, won two matches in the World Cup, one against the United States in 1998, and their opener against Morocco in 2018.
context_section_description: Iran qualified for the 2014 FIFA World Cup as group winners and competed in Group F alongside Argentina, Nigeria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The sold out Argentina match tickets were among the eight most purchased for this edition of the tournament. On 1 June 2014, Queiroz announced his 23-man squad. Prior to the tournament, they founded the Central Asian Football Association.
  In the opening match of the tournament on 16 June, Iran drew Nigeria 0–0, making it their first clean sheet of the FIFA World Cup. In their next match, Iran was defeated by Argentina 1–0 with a late goal from Lionel Messi, and received praise after holding Argentina for 90 minutes while creating some attacking opportunities of their own. Iran was eliminated from the tournament in their next game, a 3–1 defeat to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Iran's lone goal was scored by Reza Ghoochannejhad. After the tournament, Queiroz declared he would resign as manager of Iran, but later switched and extended his contract until the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
caption: Iran vs. Argentina, 2014 FIFA World Cup
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