FRANCE 98 – Yugoslavia – Iran: Two offensive sides

YUGOSLAVIA (Group F) reveals its trump cards.

23 December 1994 will always be an historic date for Yugoslav football. The present team of the Federal Republic of YUGOSLAVIA, which emerged from the former socialist YUGOSLAVIA, is coming back onto the international scene. At RIO ALEGRE, YUGOSLAVIA lost to BRAZIL (2-0), but beneath this defeat is a new generation of football stars uniting under the same colours. Most of them already play at some of the greatest European clubs (only four of them play in their own country) but in just a few months, their individual talents would be brought together to take on the rest of the world. Second in group 6 behind Javier CLEMENTE’s SPAIN, Slobodan SANTRAC’s boys were forced to go through the play-offs. Two landslide victories against HUNGARY (7-1 away, 5-0 at home), YUGOSLAVIA led by Predrag MIJATOVIC, the strategist from Real de Madrid, who finished as the highest goalscorer in Europe during the qualifiers, with 14 goals, crushed the last obstacle between them and the World Cup in France.

The Yugoslavs can now show off their formidable scoring potential (41 goals scored in qualification, 8 conceded).

IRAN, twenty years on.

On Sunday 12 June, at SAINT-ETIENNE against YUGOSLAVIA, IRAN will make its return to the World Cup scene. A team that reached its peak in the 70s will now, twenty years on, look to repeat its past glory.

– 1968: IRAN won its first Asian nations cup. For eight years, IRAN dominated football in Asia, bringing home the cup three tournaments in succession (1968, 1972, and 1976).

-1978: Forging on, IRAN took part in its first World Cup in ARGENTINA. Beaten by HOLLAND (3-0) and Peru (4-1), IRAN only managed a draw against SCOTLAND (1-1).

-Twenty years have passed and in 1998, IRAN will take part in its second World Cup. After 13 qualification matches (8 wins, 5 draws and two losses) IRAN snatched its qualification on the return leg of the ASIA-OCEANIC group match against Australia. Down by two goals to nil twenty minutes before the end of normal time, IRAN turned the game around, and then drew in MELBOURNE, clearing the way for the World Cup in FRANCE.