World Cup 2014 | ||
Bosnia and Herzegovina |
vs | Nigeria |
ScheduleWednesday, 25 June 2014 at 16:00 GMT / 17:00 UK / 21:30 IST Venue Arena Fonte Nova (Salvador) |
Next Wednesday, Bosnia and Herzegovina will measure forces with Iran at Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador on match that might still offer a ticket to the next stage of the tournament to Iran in case of win.
After a bad start against Argentina for their World Cup debut, Bosnia failed to bounce back and claim the three points against Nigeria last Saturday. The Eastern European team had everything within their favour to defeat the Super Eagles, as they are a fairly more organized team, but they failed to impose their alleged supremacy. Despite their complaints regarding the referee’s performance (because of a disallowed goal during the first-half of the match), Bosnia need to realise what went wrong with the team and why have they failed to replicate their excellent performances during the World Cup qualification round.
The former Yugoslavian legend Safet Susic has apparently failed to implement his tactical ideas during the World Cup. Bosnia achieved an impressive goal record during the qualification round, with Dzeko and Ibisevic scoring more than half of the team’s goals on those ten matches. For reasons unknown and on Bosnia’s both matches, Susic opted for a more conservative approach with just one centre forward and that fact might have cost the team three or four points in the tournament.
For the match against Iran and with their home return flight already booked, it is likely that Susic will implement some changes his team and eventually return to the team’s former usual approach, with two men up in the front.
As for Iran, the match against Bosnia might still grant them a place on the next round of the competition if they manage to win. After a boring and goalless draw against Nigeria for their first match, Iran put on a brave performance against the all-powerful Argentina last Saturday and only sucumbed on the dying moments of the match thanks to a fantastic goal from Lionel Messi.
Iran’s manager, Carlos Queiroz, proved all his worth by mounting what almost proved to be a lethal tactical trap to Argentina and he saw his team have at least two major goal chances during the second-half, before the Albicelestes’ goal.
Despite their modest displays on the previous matches, Bosnia and Herzegovina are to be considered favourites for the match against Iran; nevertheless, if Carlos Queiroz’s men manage to replicate their last performance, they still may have a word to say at the end of the match.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Stats: W-3 L-2 D-0
Recent Form - LLWWW
Iran
Stats: W-1 L-1 D-3
Recent Form - LDWDD
Possible Line-ups
Bosnia and Herzegovina (4-1-3-2) - Begovic - Mujdza - Sunjic - Spahic - Kolasinac - Besic - Pjanic - Ljulic - Hajrovic - Dzeko - Ibisevic
Iran (4-2-3-1) - Haghighi - Montazeri - Sadeghi - Heydari - Hosseini - Dejagah - Nekounam - Teymourian - Shojaei - Hajsafi - Ghoochannejhad
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