Cymru Head to Head with Iran -

This is the first of hopefully seven head to head articles about Cymru and their World Cup opponents’ previous contests. What a time to be alive! There will be the USA, and then the England, head to head soon, but Stephen (@StephenJBaker) starts with Cymru v Iran.

Yes, we do play them second. But to be honest with you I am doing it first because, as you will see below there, there is a massive history between the two teams.

Cymru has played the Iranians once, and beaten them. There you go, all done.

This image is courtesy of Team Melli who will be joining us for a podcast ahead of Cymru playing Iran in WC2022.

Oh ok I’ll go into more detail.

Iran v Cymru, 18 April 1978, International Friendly.

Attendance 50,000 in the Aryamehr Stadium, Tehran.

Iran 0 v 1 Cymru

(Phil Dwyer 71’)

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Manager Mike Smith’s starting line up was:

Dai Davies (Wrexham)

Gareth Davis (Wrexham)

Phil Dwyer (Cardiff City)

Joey Jones (Liverpool)

Malcolm Page (Birmingham City)

Carl Harris (Leeds United)

John Mahoney (Middlesbrough)

Mickey Thomas (Wrexham)

Nick Deacy (PSV)

Terry Yorath (Coventry City)

David Jones (Norwich City)

With two players on the bench. Brian Flynn (Leeds) who came on for John Mahoney and Les Cartwright (Wrexham) who came on for Carl Harris. The Iranian’s had six substitutes, using three. Clearly Cymru could have had more on the bench, but only dressed 13.

The goal by the much missed Phil Dwyer on his debut for Cymru, started with Mickey Thomas cutting down the Cymru left touchline. Before he took on three of the Iranian players before cutting into the penalty area. Mickey put in a low cross to the penalty spot where after a great piece of skill came the comical defending. The ball was cleared to the edge of the area where it hit the feet of an Iranian player running towards his own goals, the ball rebounding into the path of Phil Dwyer who slid the ball home from seven yards out.

It must have been a strange contrast to Cymru’s previous game. In another friendly we’d taken on West Germany in Dortmund, in a game that ended 1-1.

Iran presumably wanted a fixture against European opposition, before facing Scotland, the Netherlands and Peru in their World Cup group.

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The stadium was an interesting choice. Iran only ever played two games there. The other also a friendly, three years earlier, against Hungary.

The Islamic Revolution was starting, with the first major demonstrations against the Shah taking place a month before the game. Going forward, the 1980’s would bring tumult for the Iranian National Team.

There we have it, Cymru going into a World Cup match on the 25th November with a 100% winning record against the opposition.