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Portugal Coach Santos Cautious About Iran, Morocco

Portugal Coach Santos Cautious About Iran, Morocco
Portugal Coach Santos Cautious About Iran, Morocco

The Portuguese boss Fernando Santos acknowledged European champions Portugal and 2010 World Cup winners Spain should be considered the favorites in Group B, though he refused to underestimate Morocco and Iran.

According to Goal.com, Portugal and neighboring Spain will go head-to-head at the World Cup in Russia next year, along with Morocco and Iran following Friday’s draw.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s Portugal - that claimed Euro 2016 - and Spain headline the group but Santos is wary of the threat from the other two sides, that made it through their respective CAF and AFC qualifying campaigns undefeated.

“It’s a very deceptive and treacherous group. Portugal has to accept that we are one of the favorites but if you look in a bit more detail, you can see it’s very difficult,” Santos said. Spain is naturally favorite, as I’ve always said.”

Iran had a good qualifying campaign. It is the second consecutive round Team Melli is in the World Cup.

“Iran has experience and the coach is also one of the most experienced in this World Cup. The team also had a good performance (in qualifiers), with no defeat, and conceding goals only in the last game when it was already qualified. It’s going to be a difficult tournament,” Santos added.

“Morocco has scored goals and conceded none. This shows the strength of the team, there are players who have already played in Portugal, (Mehdi) Benatia who played for Juventus, and the quality of the coach,” he concluded.

 

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