alcaucin:
Dire football from the Iberian Peninsula today...
Agreed - Morocco played the pants off Portugal and Iran were close on 3 occasions.
But I was puzzled by the choice of a referee from Uruguay in the Iran v Spain match because the result has a bearing on who "could" play Uruguay in the knockout round of 16. Thought they should have had an African or Central American ref. Not that I'm accusing FIFA of anything....! I have a sneeky feeling it won't be Portugal or Spain.....
We'll see what happens in the final group matches in Group B - a 2-0 win for Morocco (unlikely) would put Spain on a -1 goal difference with 4 points, and a draw in the other match would put Iran (4 points GD 0) and Portugal (5 points GD +1) through as runners up and winners respectively.
Edit: If both Portugal and Spain lose 1 nil, it will go to point 7 as a decider for who gets second spot:
The top two teams after the round-robin is completed in each group are determined as follows (regulations Article 32.5):
- points obtained in all group matches;
- goal difference in all group matches;
- number of goals scored in all group matches;
If two or more teams are equal on the basis of the above three criteria, their rankings are determined as follows:
- points obtained in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- goal difference in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- number of goals scored in the group matches between the teams concerned;
- fair play points
- first yellow card: minus 1 point;
- indirect red card (second yellow card): minus 3 points;
- direct red card: minus 4 points;
- yellow card and direct red card: minus 5 points;
- drawing of lots by the FIFA Organising Committee.
I'm the one sitting at home with a tin foil hat. lol